Lee Zii Jia stages comeback to win marathon against All England champ Li Shifeng in 2023 Swiss Open first round

Lee Zii Jia recently admitted to rediscovering his love of badminton after making the semi-finals at last week's All England Open.

That love was pushed to the brink on Wednesday (22 March) in the first round of the BWF World Tour Super 300 Swiss Open 2023 in Basel, where the Malaysian second seed found himself up against none ofther than All England champion Li Shifeng.

With the draw having been made in advance of the All England, performances last week in Birmingham did not matter to the developments in Basel – and world number four Lee found himself up against Chinese shuttler Li, now 11th in the world.

At no point during the match did either man roll off more than four consecutive points, as neither was able to assert full dominance on the other.

It was Li who took the upper hand in a tight, closely-fought contest that went the distance, which saw both players trade the lead in all three games. The unseeded Chinese player pulled away from 18–18 to clinch the opening game 21–18.

Malaysia's Lee took the second by the same score, holding off Li to level the match when an early exit and a return to his inconsistent form had looked possible.

Lee actually opened up a lead of three in the decider at 14–11 but found himself repeatedly pegged back by Li, who forced the game beyond its usual 21 points. That forced Zii Jia to dig deep, which he duly did to eventually triumph in one hour, 12 minutes by a final score of 18–21, 21–18, 23–21.

That sees him into a second-round clash against Ireland's Nhat Nguyen.

Reigning World and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark advanced easily after his opponent, Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo of Indonesia, retired at 5-1. Axelsen will play Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei next.