Lee Zii Jia retires again as Momota Kento, PV Sindhu and Yamaguchi Akane victorious on opening day at Indonesia Masters 2021
The Malaysian withdrew from a match for the second time in 10 days at the Super 750 badminton event in Bali.
The opening day of badminton's penultimate World Tour event for 2021, the Indonesia Masters, saw Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia retire with an injury in Bali.
Lee, the tournament seventh seed, managed only 13 minutes against his opponent Rasmus Gemke from Denmark before deciding to pull out of the match.
This is the second retirement in two matches for the 23-year-old, who also retired from the Hylo Open 2021 final just over a week ago.
It's been a very taxing few weeks of action for the Malaysian following his Tokyo 2020 Olympics outing. He captained the national team in their Sudriman Cup and Thomas Cup campaigns before going on to play three tournaments - the Denmark Open, French Open, and Hylo Open, all in the space of three weeks.
Lee posted on social media that he had "no choice but to retire from this tournament " as his "body still needs to recover and prepare for the coming tournaments."
Momota Kento and other top seeds through to second round
Men's singles top seed, Momota Kento had no such problems and breezed through to the second round of the Super 750 tournament.
The two-time world champion defeated Tommy Sugiarto in straight games, beating the Indonesian 21-12, 21-16 in 44 minutes. The world number one will next play India's up and coming youngster Lakhya Sen, who is ranked 19th in the world.
Japanese women's singles top seed, Yamaguchi Akane, also enjoyed a straight games victory over Indonesia's Ruselli Hartawan. Yamaguchi needed only 30 minutes to wrap up the encounter 21-12, 21-14 to advance to the second round where she will next play South Korea's Kim Gaeun.
Yamaguchi is enjoying a great run of form at the moment, having helped Japan win first the Sudirman Cup and then the Uber Cup, before taking victories at the Denmark and French Open.
India's PV Sindhu also opened her campaign in Bali with a win. The tournament third seed dispatched of Thailand's Supanida Katethong 21-15, 21-19 in a match lasting 43 minutes.
Sindhu has yet to make the final of an event since the Swiss Open in March this year.
The Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist will next take on Spain's Clara Azuermendi.