All England Open 2022: How to watch Malaysia's superstar Lee Zii Jia live in action
After being upstaged at the German Open, Malaysia's top-ranked men's singles badminton player will look to defend his Super 1000 event title in Birmingham.
Badminton
Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia is about to face one of his greatest challenges to date: defending badminton's All England Open which takes place 16-20 March.
The World No. 7 made the world take notice when he won the Super 1000 event last year, beating top seed Momota Kento and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen in the process.
But a lot has changed for Lee since then.
In January he decided to leave the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), meaning that he now competes on the World Tour circuit as an independent player.
Subsequently, Lee self funds his career, which includes paying for his own coaches, training facilities and support team, as well as all his travel, accommodation and expenses whilst on tour.
In his debut as an independent at the German Open, the two-time World Tour winner made it as far as the semi-finals before he was upstaged by World No. 20 Kunlavut Vitidsarn, who went on to clinch the title.
The Malaysian would love nothing better that to become the first player to defend the All England Open title, since his mentor Lee Chong Wei did so in 2011.
Schedule of play:
Lee Zii Jia is seeded sixth for the All England Open Open and will begin his title defense against Japan's Nishimoto Kenta who is ranked more than ten places below the Malaysian.
Lee holds the upper hand in their head-to-head statistics, having won three of their last four encounters. The last time they they faced off was at the 2019 world championships, where Lee took the match after extra points.
With the current field so tight, Lee Zii Jia will need to start strongly from the very first point of the very first game to keep his campaign on track.
Should he make it through to the quarter-finals, we could be in for a repeat of last year's match-up against 2019 All England Champion Momota Kento.
It gets no easier from there. With the likes of Olympic Champion Viktor Axelsen, Jonatan Christie and reigning world champion Loh Kean Yew in different sections of the draw, clinching back-to-back titles was never going to be a simple task.
Where to watch the All England Open 2022 live in Malaysia?
The All England Open 2022 will be broadcast live in Malaysia on Astro's subscription channels, Astro Super Sport 4 HD and Astro Arena.
READ MORE: Lee Zii Jia's new beginning : 'Glad to start off a new journey with a brand new Lee Zii Jia'