Hangzhou: Malaysia’s top men’s singles player, Lee Zii Jia, staged a sensational comeback to defeat world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand 10-21, 21-19, 21-6 in the 3rd round of the Asian Games on Friday.
Lee Zii Jia, who is ranked 16th in the world, had a slow start to the match and lost the first game convincingly. However, he came back stronger in the second game and eventually won it 21-19.
The third game was one-way traffic, with Lee dominating Vitidsarn and winning 21-6.
After the match, Lee was joking with the media when he said he won because he still had a lot of energy left after being knocked out in the early rounds of many tournaments this season.
“It is clear that Kunlavut’s stamina is decreasing. Each player has a different body condition,” Lee said. “We went through a lot of tournaments this year. I lost a lot in the early rounds while he made it to the next round. I think he is more tired than me.”
For the record, Lee has suffered 11 defeats in the preliminary round (including the first and second rounds) out of the 14 World Tour tournaments he has participated in this season.
Vitidsarn, on the other hand, has only lost five times in the preliminary round out of 11 tournaments.
However, Vitidsarn admitted that he was not able to do his best preparation before this year’s Asian Games after spending four days in the hospital before leaving for Hangzhou.
“I don’t think much because I know physically I’m not at my best,” Vitidsarn said. “I had influenza and had to be hospitalized for four days before coming here. Due to not being able to do the best preparation, I don’t have any high hopes for the Asian Games this time. Anyway, credit to Zii Jia, he’s a good player and played really well today.”
