Tokyo: Malaysia’s World No. 5 men’s singles player – Lee Zii Jia lost to World No. 23 Zhao Jun Peng of China in the third round of the 2022 World Championships on Thursday.
Lee bowed out 19-21, 21-11, 19-21 in a match that lasted for one hour and five minutes.
“I made a lot of mistakes today,” said Lee after the match.
“Zhao played well today. He was really good at the net,” added Lee.
“I think I need to be more patient and work on improving my consistency after this,” continued Lee.
Despite the disappointment in men’s singles, in an all-Malaysian third-round battle between World No. 6 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik and World No. 12 Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medalists progressed after defeating Goh/Izzuddin 21-17, 21-19.
Chia/Soh will meet World No. 11 Choi Sol Gyu/Seo Seung Jae of Korea on Friday.
Also made the quarter-finals were Malaysia’s mixed doubles pairs, World No. 11 Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing, and World No. 14 Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai.
Tan/Lai defeated World No. 29 Kyohei Yamashita/Naru Shinoya 21-12, 21-14 in 41 minutes and were scheduled to face the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games silver medalists Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong on Friday.
For the record, Zheng/Huang have won all the previous six encounters over Tan/Lai.
Meanwhile, Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Lai overcame World No. 9 Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue from France to meet Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games bronze medalists from Japan, Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino in the last eight.
