Lee Zii Jia may have received a favourable draw at the upcoming Paris Olympics after he was drawn in Group G against Viren Nettasinghe and Pablo Abian, but nothing should be taken for granted.
StadiumAstro takes a look at Lee’s opponents and highlights some interesting facts about them.
Viren Nettasinghe (Sri Lanka)
The 21-year-old Nettasinghe is Sri Lanka’s highest ranked men’s singles shuttler at 70. He also plays in the men’s doubles and is ranked 189 in the world.
Nettasinghe also earned the honour of becoming Sri Lanka’s youngest badminton player to directly qualify for the 2024 Olympics when he was selected at the age of 20.
Not only that, Nettasinghe has also been chosen as his country’s flag bearer and also male team captain in Paris.
Nettasinghe’s best result this year came at the Swedish Open when he reached the semi-finals before losing to Pablo Abian, who is in the same group at the Paris Olympics.
He reached the Iran International semis after that, but also suffered a defeat.
Lee and Nettasinghe have never faced each other before.
Pablo Abian (Spain)
Having turned 39 recently, Abian will be the oldest men’s singles shuttler to compete at the Paris Olympics.
The Zaragoza-born shuttler will also be making his fifth Olympics appearance in Paris, having featured at the 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 editions.
Abian is set to join an elite cast of only four shuttlers to make it to a fifth Olympics, alongside Poland’s Robert Mateusiak, Thailand’s Boonsak Ponsana and Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon.
In all his four Olympic appearances, the world number 63 has never qualified beyond the first round and group stage.
Abian has faced Lee once at the 2021 Hylo Open, where he suffered a narrow 11-21, 23-21, 22-24 defeat against the Malaysian who went on to reach the final.
Abian has won one title this year after he captured the Swedish Open in January.
He also finished runner-up at the Nantes International last month.
