Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times (NST) reported that the former coach of Malaysia’s World No. 4 Lee Zii Jia, Indra Wijaya from Indonesia could potentially take legal action against Lee for the early termination of Wijaya’s coaching contract.
According to NST, Lee who appointed Wijaya after leaving the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) in January of 2022, decided to end the contract with Wijaya last November when the 24-year-old would like to continue his badminton career without a coach.
NST said that the contract between Lee and Wijaya was supposed to expire after the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Lee and Wijaya’s partnership was off to a strong start when Lee won the 2022 Badminton Asia Championships in early May of 2022, defeating Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie 21–17, 23–21 in straight sets. On 22 May 2022, Lee beat China’s Li Shifeng with a rubber set score of 17–21, 21–11, and 23–21 in 70 minutes to win his first BWF World Tour Super 500 title at the 2022 Thailand Open.
However, Lee had been struggling since the second half of 2022 and was eliminated in the preliminary rounds of all tournaments he competed. That might be the reason why Lee has decided to end the working relationship with Wijaya.
NST mentioned when it contacted Wijaya, the Indonesian coach neither deny nor admit that he could possibly file a lawsuit against his former player.
