Kuala Lumpur: The draw for the Tokyo Olympic badminton tournament took place Thursday in England, and after the conclusion of the draw for the group stage, Malaysia’s World No. 8 men’s singles player, Lee Zii Jia was drawn into Group M together with Brice Leverdez of France and Artem Pochtarov of Ukraine.
“A lot of people said that I was handed tough draw especially I’ll need to face Brice Leverdez in the group stage,” said Lee.
“Brice Leverdez is a good player and is much more experienced than I am, and I can not underestimate him. I will look at some of his videos, and I want to make sure I take this seriously,” added Lee.
Lee remained calm, cool and collected when talked about the Olympic men’s singles draw.
“Regardless of the drawing results, to be a champion, I would need to defeat everyone coming my way,” continued Lee.
Lee who will be playing in his first Olympics in Tokyo has a 1-1 head-to-head record against Leverdez with the last meeting won by the French at the 2019 Thailand Masters.
The 23-year-old Lee also has a 1-1 career meeting record against Pochtarov. Lee lost to Pochtarov in the round of 16 of 2017 Polish Open but defeated Pochtarov in the round of 32 of the 2017 Bitburger Badminton Open.
Should Lee able to advance to the knockout stage, he is very likely to face reigning Olympic champion, Chen Long of China.
“I am looking forward to facing either Chen Long or Shi Yuqi. This is the first time that I’ve seen any players without injury who didn’t compete in any tournaments for more than a year, of course, it’s due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“I don’t know how are their most recent conditions, the latest videos we could find about Chen Long or Shi Yuqi were from more than a year ago. I don’t think that’s going to benefit us much. ”
If Lee passes the hurdle of Chen Long, he is expected to face second seed from Taiwan, Chou Tien Chen in the quarter-finals, and potentially Anders Antonsen from Denmark in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s World No. 9 men’s doubles pair – Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik were confident that they could make the quarter-finals after being drawn in Group D with Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan (Indonesia), Choi Solgyu/Seo Seungjae (Korea) and Jason Anthony Ho-Shue/Nyl Yakura (Canada).
“We have never played the Canadian pair but we have a 2-2 record against Choi/Seo. I believe we can make the quarter-finals,” said Chia.
“Anything could happen in the Olympics. Whatever it is, we will look at the videos and focus on our training one week before departing for Tokyo,” said Chia.
The Tokyo Summer Olympics are due to start on July 23, 2021, and the badminton tournament is scheduled to take place between 24 July and 2 August 2021 at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza.
