Zii Jia storms into Australian Open final

Lee Jii Zia will meet K Naraoka of Japan in the final tomorrow. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: National singles player Lee Zii Jia overcame a tenacious Lee Chia-hao of Chinese Taipei 10-21, 21-15, 21-10 to reach the final of the Australian Open today, his third appearance in a final in the last four tournaments.

Zii Jia won the Thailand Open championship three weeks ago after beating Hong Kong’s world No. 27 Angus Ng 21-11, 21-10.

In the Malaysia Masters final a week later, he lost to world No 1 Viktor Axelsen from Denmark in three games.

Zii Jia, the world No 8, gave the crowd some anxious moments before defeating world No 37 Chia-hao in 56 minutes. It was the third time that Zii Jia has beaten the Chinese Taipei player in six meetings.

Zii Jia did not have it easy today. In the first game, he trailed 11-5 in seven minutes as he continued to make error after error, before surrendering the game 10-21 in 14 minutes.

He appeared to have given up the game mid-way to preserve his energy for the second game.

Following the changeover, he took a quick 11-5 lead before powering his way to win 21-15 in 23 minutes to force a rubber.

Zii Jia took an early 4-1 lead in the decider, but Chia-hao came back strongly to reduce the deficit to 4-3. Both players, who appeared to have studied each other’s style very well, fought hard for every point.

However, Zii Jia romped ahead with precision play to win the rubber game 21-10 in 19 minutes.

Speaking to Badminton World Federation later, he said this is very positive for him ahead of the Olympics next month, being his fourth tournament in a row and third final appearance.

“I decided to play in the Australian Open because there are only six weeks left to the Olympics. After discussing with my coach and my team, we agreed that there is plenty of time for me to rest and prepare.

“As long as I wasn’t injured, I was always going to play here,” added Zii Jia.

Zii Jia will meet K Naraoka of Japan in the final tomorrow.