Lee, seeded seventh at the upcoming Summer Games, was drawn in Group G along with Sri Lanka’s Viren Nettasinghe and Spaniard Pablo Abian.
The Malaysian should have no problems overcoming the Sri Lankan rookie, and should also easily see off Abian who is the oldest men’s singles shuttler at this Olympics at 39.
In the mixed doubles, Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei will be confident of their chances of advancing to the knockout rounds after they were drawn against Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping (China), Vinson Chiu-Jennie Cai (USA) and Terry Hee-Jessica Tan (Singapore).
The Malaysians have beaten the Chinese pair once in three meetings, and overcame Hee-Tan in their only meeting at the Swiss Open earlier this year.
With two pairs guaranteed a place in the knockout rounds, Chen-Toh’s match against the Singaporean husband-wife combination could be the deciding factor of their chances.
In the women’s singles, Goh Jin Wei will need to beat South Korea’s Kim Ga-eun in order to advance from Group H.
The other shuttler drawn in that group is South Africa’s Johanita Scholtz, whom Goh and Kim are expected to beat.
Goh will draw plenty of inspiration from her victory against Kim the last time both women met in 2022.
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Then, the Malaysian beat Kim in straight games at the Korea Open.
With Rexy Mainaky set to guide her instead of her coach Nova Armada, it will be interesting to see how she fares in Paris.
National women’s doubles pair Tan-Thinaah, meanwhile, were given the toughest draw of the lot after they were placed in Group A alongside reigning world champions Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan (China), Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara (Japan) and Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti.
For the record, Apriyani is the reigning Olympic champion after she won gold at the Tokyo Olympics with former partner Greysia Polli.
The men’s doubles draw will be conducted at another date, as confirmed by the Badminton World Federation.
