BWF Australian Open 2024: Lee Zii Jia, Loh Kean Yew reach second round

All six seeded players in the BWF Australian Open 2024 men’s singles badminton draw, including Malaysian Lee Zii Jia and Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew, made it past their opening tests on Wednesday (12 June).

Lee was made to work the hardest out of all six, with the third seed being taken to a three-game thriller by unfancied Indian opponent S. Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, with the eighth seed eventually winning 21-16, 18-21, 21-10.

The Malaysian had to come from behind to take the opening game, before struggling to keep pace with Sankar Muthusamy in the second as the Indian levelled the match.

However, the world number eight finally managed to gain control in the decider, leaving his 77th-ranked opponent in his wake to book a second-round match against his compatriot Soong Joo Ven.

The later rounds of the Australian Open are available to stream live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the Olympics mobile app, subject to territorial restrictions.

The other five seeds, including Loh, all registered straight-games victories. Loh, the 2021 world champion who has fallen back to 12th in the world rankings, beat Finland’s Kalle Koljonen 21-15, 21-13 in 37 minutes.

In a see-saw first game which saw both players string together a run of points, Loh won 11 of the final 13 points to take the opener, before a tally of eight straight points from 12-11 up in the second helped him to close out the match.

Loh next plays India’s Sameer Verma.

Other big names who won on the day included second seed Naraoka Kodai of Japan – the top-ranked player in the competition and fifth-seeded Indian H.S. Prannoy.