Paris Olympics: Zii Jia secures a second bronze for Malaysia

Lee Zii Jia made it another memorable day for Malaysian badminton after he clinched the Paris Olympics men's singles bronze medal after coming from a game down to beat Lakshya Sen on Monday.

The Malaysian ousted his Indian opponent 13-21, 21-16, 21-11 to gift the country a first men's singles medal since the 2016 Olympics when Lee Chong Wei won his third silver.

Lee was a shadow of himself in the first game with a lot of judgement errors that saw his returns go wide off the mark.

Besides that, he was also content to engage in a rally game that allowed Sen to dominate from front to back court, which he capitalized to easily

clinch the opening game.

Lee needed to revert back to his offensive game to change his fortunes in this match, and he gradually did so early in the second game.

Trailing 3-7, the world number seven started to force the issue with more attacking returns that resulted in Sen struggling for an answer.

Lee soon surged into a 12-8 lead, and despite Sen's efforts to claw his back back, the Kedah-born kept his composure to level the scores.

Losing that game derailed Sen's game, and it also brought out the best from Lee who came out all guns blazing with his smashes which he started to fire from every angle he could find.

The Malaysian's defence also shone, and when he dove full stretch to retrieve a shuttle and win his 17th point in a great rally, there was a rare celebration from Lee.

Victory was soon secured when Lee fired a return into Sen's body to ensure a second consecutive bronze medal for Malaysia after Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik had delivered a first on Sunday.

Lee also becomes the second Malaysian men's singles shuttler to win an Olympic bronze medal since Rashid Sidek achieved it at the 1996 Olympics.