Lee Zii Jia beaten in badminton Malaysia Open first-round by world no. 7 Naraoka, Marin overcomes PV Sindhu
The men's world no. 2 Lee loses in front of a vocal home crowd in a three-game marathon to Japan's Naraoka Kodai, who was unseeded only because the draw had been made using an older set of world rankings.
Badminton
The season started with a bang for Lee Zii Jia… until it didn't.
Malaysia's badminton world number two looked to be sailing into the second round of his home Malaysia Open tournament to begin his 2023 campaign, but found himself pegged back by a worthy and difficult opponent in Naraoka Kodai, eventually losing 21-13, 17-21, 19-21 on Wednesday (11 January).
With a vocal crowd cheering his every shot, Lee eased through the opening game against his world no. 7 opponent – having been drawn against Naraoka because the seedings used an older set of world rankings with Naraoka outside the top eight and unable to be seeded.
However, the Japanese – playing in his first career Super 1000 top-level BWF World Tour event – grew into the match, and looked to be on the verge of easily levelling up the game if not for some remarkable rallies played by Lee to keep himself in the second game as he rattled off five consecutive points. However, Naraoka held his nerve to take the game and force a decider.
Naraoka then turned it on in the third, dominating the opening rallies to pull out a 4-0 lead before Lee finally got a foot into the decider, battling hard to keep the deficit to 11-8 at the change of ends interval. The margin remained tight, within three points in Naraoka's favour, after the interval, as Lee kept the pressure up on the Japanese, before Lee levelled at 16-16 to raucous cheers.
Lee finally pulled ahead at 18-17 for the first time in the deciding game but Naraoka pegged him back, then forced the Malaysian into an error at the net. Naraoka continued to force Lee into mistakes, but the home hope saved the first match point with a brilliant net shot.
However, Lee sent the next rally wide – with loud wails from the crowd ending an incredible hour-and-13-minute marathon clash as the crowd was reduced to silence. Naraoka progresses to face Lee's fellow Malaysian Ng Tze Yong in round two.
Earlier, the Rio 2016 Olympic champion Carolina Marín eliminated her old friend and rival P.V. Sindhu of India in a first-round women's singles encounter, sending the Indian sixth seed out of the tournament 21-12, 10-21, 21-15.
Marín told the Spanish federation afterwards: "I’m very happy, it’s been a tough match. Sindhu is always very competitive. I’ve been very focused during the match. The most important thing today is that I was able to control the drift in this venue, because it comes from one side of the venue and that makes it much more complicated to control the shuttlecock. But I’m very happy, I love these kind of matches, specially with a colleague like Sindhu."
Sindhu was one of six seeds eliminated on Wednesday alongside Lee, with men's singles seventh seed Lakshya Sen going out to fellow Indian H.S. Prannoy; women's doubles sixth seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul / Rawinda Prajongjai and fourth seeds Lee So-hee / Shin Seung-chan; and mixed doubles pair Tan Kian Meng / Lai Pei Jing (6) all seeing their campaigns end early too.