KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 — National professional men's singles Lee Zii Jia, together with fellow athletes Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun (men's doubles) and Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah (women's doubles) cleared their hurdles in the first round of the 2024 Indonesia Open after defeating their respective opponents today.
In the first round of the Super 1000 tournament today, Lee defeated Hong Kong's Ng Ka Long 21-17, 21-16, thus ensuring that the world number seven has beaten the same opponent five times in a row.
Earlier, he defeated Ng at the 2022 Asian Games, the 2024 Indonesian Masters, the 2024 Thai Open, and the 2024 Malaysian Masters, apart from the 2019 German Open.
Lee will next face China's Weng Hong Yang in the second round. During the 2023 French Open, he won against Weng 21-15 and 21-11.
Man-Tee pulled off a surprise when they defeated the world number three Kang Min Hyuk-Seo Seung Jae of South Korea, 20-22, 21-16 and 21-17 in 59 minutes.
The Malaysian pair, ranked 20th in the world, finally turned the tide after losing two previous encounters at the 2023 Malaysian Masters and the 2023 Korean Open.
They will next meet either the Danish pair Rasmus Kjaer-Frederick Sogaard or China's Chen Bo Yang-Liu Yi in the second round.
Meanwhile, national women's doubles Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah beat Taiwan's Sung Shuo Yun-Yu Chien Hui 21-19 and 22-20.
The duo, ranked 13th in the world, will next have to contend with host pair Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti-Apriyani Rahayu, who are seeded eighth.
According to previous meeting records, Tan-Thinaah have beaten Siti Fadia-Apriyani twice at the 2022 Malaysian Masters and the 2022 French Open.
Meanwhile, two national mixed doubles received a similar fate, with Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei losing to South Koreans Seo Seung Jae-Chae Yu Jung, 13-21 and 15-21, while Hong Kong pair Lee Chun Hei Reginald-Ng Tsz Yau defeated Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie, 16-21, 21-17 and 21-10.
Rising men's doubles combination of Choong Hon Jian-Muhammad Haikal Nazri also received the same fate when they lost to Lee Yang-Wang Chi Lin of Taiwan, 21-18, 16-21, 17-21, while the country's women's singles, Goh Jin Wei was eliminated by the sixth seed, Wang Zhi Yi of China, 15-21 and 17-21.
— Bernama
