Manila: Indra Wijaya who became the coach for the World No. 7 Lee Zii Jia in mid-February after Lee decided to continue his badminton career as a professional shuttler, said that he’s optimistic about Lee Zii Jia’s chances of winning the 2022 Badminton Asia Championships (BAC) which is currently taking place in Manila, Philippines.
Lee will open his campaign against World No. 54 Sun Fei Xiang of China on Wednesday. If he could get past Sun, he would play the winner between Lin Chun-Yi of Taiwan or Shesar Hiren Rhustavito of Indonesia in the second round and may face World No. 14 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in the quarter-finals.
The Malaysian is expected to take on World No. 5 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia should he makes it to the semi-finals.
“So far, the preparations have been going well, I hope he can play his best game at BAC. As a coach I want to see him play at his best consistently,” said Wijaya to Malaysian media.
“If he could perform well, he can emerge champion,” added Wijaya.
In addition to Lee, there were four other Malaysian men’s singles players who are competing at the BAC, namely Liew Daren, Ng Tze Yong, and Aidil Sholeh.
Liew is set to face Heo Kwanghee of Korea, Ng to meet Kidambi Srikanth of India while Sholeh will open against Wang Tzu Wei of Taiwan on Wednesday.
