PARIS, Aug 3 — The country's professional men's singles player, Lee Zii Jia, successfully advanced to the semifinals of the 2024 Paris Olympics after eliminating Anders Antonsen from Denmark in straight sets here today.
In the quarter-final action at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena, Zii Jia registered a 21-17, 21-15 victory over the world number three ranked player, who is also his good friend, to continue his recent streak of wins in major tournaments.
The victory helped Zii Jia close the gap on the meeting record with Antonsen, with the Malaysian player having won four out of nine matches between the two so far.
In Sunday's semi-final match, Zii Jia will meet 2023 world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn from Thailand, who pulled off a sensational surprise by eliminating the world number one player from China, Shi Yu Qi in a jaw-dropping 21-12, 21-10 straight sets victory.
Zii Jia advanced to the quarter-final after eliminating the host nation's Toma Junior Popov 21-13, 24-22 in the last 16 yesterday, thus improving his performance at the Tokyo 2020 Games, when he lost to the Chinese champion, Chen Long at the last 16 stage.
Speaking of the win, Zii Jia said he was able to exhibit an energetic performance in today’s match because he was focusing on “one point at a time” and not being too eager to win.
“I am very happy to have made it to the semifinals but the challenge must continue. I was surprisingly very calm for myself and I can feel his (Antonsen) desire to win. Maybe that’s one of the reasons he made a lot of unforced errors.
“Olympics always got surprises and there are no favourites, anything can happen. It just depends on how we can handle our situation. I am also not 100 percent sure that tomorrow I can handle the situation like today,” he said.
Asked about his meeting with Kunlavut in the semifinals, Zii Jia predicts a tough match against his Thai opponent, whom he said looks to be in his best form.
Meanwhile, Antonsen said he was very disappointed with today’s defeat as he had very much desired make it to the semifinals.
“Not the way I wanted the Olympics to go, I wanted to do better obviously. I tried to do multiple things, tried to change my game plan but it didn’t work.
“Zii Jia is definitely good enough for gold, but so is everyone else, who are incredible on their best day,” he said.
— Bernama
