Birmingham: The reigning All England champion Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia will face a major test on Wednesday at 2022 All England as he planned to defend his title and continued the quest for his first BWF World Tour trophy of the season in Birmingham.
The World No. 7 Lee will take on World No. 20 Kenta Nishimoto of Japan. Despite being the higher-ranked player, rankings don’t mean that much in this first-round battle between Lee and Nishimoto as the Japanese have shown he is capable of beating any top-ranked players in the world.
In the German Open first round last Wednesday, Nishimoto did just that by beating former World No. 1 and current World No. 2 Kento Momota 23-19, 21-9. He then defeated Brian Yang of Canada 21-19, 21-11. Yang pulled off a huge upset by knocking out reigning World Champion – Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the German Open first round.
Nishimoto and the eventual 2022 German Open champion – Kunlavut Vitidsarn were engaged in a grueling marathon quarter-final, where Vitidsarn needed 94 minutes to see off Nishimoto 19-21 21-18 21-18.
On the other hand, Lee was involved in two three-setters in the first two rounds of the German Open, easing past Zhao Jun Peng of China in the quarter-finals, before losing the Vitidsarn in the semi-finals 21-13, 21-12.
It’s going to be exciting to see whether Lee or Nishimoto will walk away victorious in the All England first round on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, playing in his first-ever All England tournament, the World No. 9 Loh Kean Yew is scheduled to play World No. 3, Anders Antonsen of Denmark, in the first round.
Both Loh and Antonsen had played each other in the semi-finals of the 2021 BWF World Championships. Loh managed to overcome Antonsen 23-21, 21-14 to eventually win the World’s title by knocking off Kidambi Srikanth of India in the final.
Loh has displayed very inconsistent form so far this season, where he lost to Lakshya Sen of India in the 2022 India Open final, went down to Lee Zii Jia in the 2022 Badminton Asia Team Championships Men’s Team Group B tie between Singapore and Malaysia, and he was beaten by Brian Yang of Canada in the first round of 2022 German Open last Wednesday, losing 21-12, 16-21, 18-21.
For Antonsen, the All England would be his first tournament of 2022, it’s remained to be seen if the Dane could put himself in the best possible condition to perform at the world’s oldest badminton tournament.
In men’s doubles, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik who missed last week’s German Open due to Soh being tested positive for COVID-19, have departed Kuala Lumpur last Sunday and should have already arrived in Birmingham by now. The World No. 7 Malaysian pair will open against Christopher Grimley/Matthew Grimley of Scotland on Wednesday.
Last week’s German Open men’s doubles champions, Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin, who beat He Ji Ting and his temporary partner – Zhou Hao Dong of China in the 2022 German Open semi-finals, will play He Ji Ting and his World No. 19 partner – Tan Qiang, in the All England first round.
