BWF World Championships: Zii Jia concedes mistakes cause shock early exit

Lee Zii Jia admitted his game was riddled with mistakes after the Malaysian crashed out of the BWF World Championships third round at the hands of unseeded Zhao Jun Peng 19-21, 21-11, 19-21 on Thursday.

“I made a lot of mistakes, plus the Chinese player had a good game too. Moving forward I need to be more patient and stabilise my performance. As for my opponent, he had good control of the game,” said Lee.

Expectations were high on the Kedah-born, seeded fifth at this world meet, to go the distance and possibly become the country’s first world champion.

Lee also courted controversy for skipping the Commonwealth Games to focus on the World Championships, a decision that has now drawn questions and criticism among some fans in the aftermath of this premature exit.

Overall, Lee’s performance against Zhao was not too bad.

But his loss of focus, or underestimation of his opponent, whatever it was, proved costly at the final stretch of the first and third game.

With the scores almost equal in both games, Lee allowed Zhao to pull away within touching distance, before upping the tempo to try and salvage the situation.

It proved futile both times, and it will be something he needs to work on after this.

Lee is scheduled to compete at the Japan Open next (Aug 30-Sept 4) next.