Former national men’s doubles shuttler Tan Boon Heong has come to Lee Zii Jia’s defence after several comments stated the reason he won the Australian Open last Sunday was due to lack of top players.

Lee clinched his second title of the year in Sydney over the weekend after beating Japanese Kodai Naraoka in a heart stopping three-game final.

Seeded third, the now world number seven had to overcome S. Sankar, Soong Joo Ven, Kenta Nishimoto, Lee Chia-hao and finally Naraoka to taste his second Super 500 win this year.

Despite the absence of several top 10 shuttlers, going all the way to win the title was always going to be tricky with plenty of quality still on display from players such as Chou Tien-chen, H.S.Prannoy, Loh Kean Yew and Naraoka.

Tan, who knows all about winning titles with former partner Koo Kien Kiat, explained the Australian Open title was never guaranteed for Lee.

“Eventhough there weren’t many top shuttlers playing, if Lee did not possess certain strengths he would not have won. Lee took the opportunity to play because other shuttlers were resting to prepare for the upcoming Olympics.

“He wanted to continue testing himself against players from other countries. Win or lose, at least he had some training. I think his confidence has grown ahead of the Olympics and he will be able to go all out to give Malaysia a first ever gold medal,” said Tan on his official TikTok account.

Besides winning the Australian Open, Lee also bagged the fastest men’s singles smash of the tournament with a speed of 452.3 kilometres per hour.

Of the top 10 fastest smashes in the men's singles, Lee posted four of the fastest smash by also recording the fourth (441.2 kp/h), fifth (436.2 kp/h) and seventh (419.4 kp/h) fastest smash.