Badminton French Open: Lee Zii Jia suffers shock first round exit
Denmark Open finalist Lee Zii Jia crashed out in the first round of the French Open against Indonesia's Shesar Hiren Rhustavito.
Badminton
Lee Zii Jia crashed out in the first round of badminton's French Open on Wednesday (26 October).
Three days after going down 18-21, 21-16, 12-21 to China's Shi Yuqi in the Denmark Open final, the Malaysian star unexpectedly lost to Indonesia's Shesar Hiren Rhustavito 19-21, 18-21.
It was the ninth meeting between the two, with Rhustavito now having won five of those matches.
Lee Zii Jia never found his rhythm against the world number 24, and it was all over after just 44 minutes.
It was an unexpected setback for the 24-year-old, who is now the new world number two behind leader Viktor Axelsen (Denmark) in the latest rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Monday.
Danish Olympic and world champion Axelsen opened his French Open campaign on Tuesday with a 21-11, 22-20 win over Japan's Nishimoto Kenta to set up a meeting with Sitthikom Thammasin (Thailand).
Read more: Find out what happened on the final day at the Denmark Open.
More to follow.