World Tour Finals: Zii Jia vs Antonsen among top Malaysian matches

The World Tour Finals (WTF) draw has set the stage for some interesting battles involving the Malaysian contingent who are competing at the 2024 season-finale in Hangzhou, China next week (Dec 11-15).

StadiumAstro looks at four interesting Malaysia match-ups in the men’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles as well as the mixed doubles’ categories.

Lee Zii Jia vs Anders Antonsen

Lee, who will have his coach Wong Tat Meng behind him for one final time, has been placed in Group A alongside Antonsen, Chou Tien-chen and Li Shi Feng.

All of the Malaysian’s three opponents are tough nuts to crack, but especially so Antonsen who is in red-hot form having recently clinched the China Masters title.

The last two meetings have favoured Lee who beat the tournament’s top seed at the Malaysia Masters and more recently the Paris Olympics, but Antonsen will go into this contest as the favourite given his recent form.

Both men are friends outside of competition, which adds to the intrigue of this showdown.

Pearly Tan-M.Thinaah vs Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning

Tan-Thinaah are in Group A alongside Liu- Tan Ning who are the tournament’s top seeds, India’s Tressa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand Pullela and Japan’s Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida.

Just like the Paris Olympics, this Malaysian pair will be the underdogs in this group with the Chinese and Japanese pairs tipped to qualify for the semi-finals.

But nothing is a guarantee. If Tan-Thinaah can beat Liu-Tan Ning like they did to win the Hong Kong Open title, they stand a good chance of reaching the last four.

Both pairs have faced each other three times in as many months, and their familiarity with each other’s styles should make this a feisty affair.

Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin vs Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin

The in-form Malaysian pair who have secured the Japan, Arctic Open and China Open in the last three months will take on reigning Olympic champions Lee-Wang in this Group A clash.

This will be arguably the biggest clash of the group that also contains Denmark's Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen and Chinese Taipei pair Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-Hsuan.

The fact that Lee Yang is coming out from retirement to partner Wang for the final time adds to the excitement of this match, with the winner most likely to book their place in the semis.

Both pairs have won twice each in four meetings, an indication of how close this contest will play out.

Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai vs Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei

This all-Malaysian mixed doubles clash takes the pick of Group A.

The ideal outcome would be for both pairs to qualify for the semi-finals should they overcome Indonesians’ Dejan Ferdinansyah-Gloria Emmanuelle Widjaja and Japan’s Hiroki Midorikawa-Natsu Saito.

Both Malaysian pairs have done well for themselves this year with Goh-Lai capturing the Swiss Open and Malaysia Masters, besides a runner-up finish at the China Open.

Chen-Toh, meanwhile, captured their biggest career title after winning the Korea Open soon after the Paris Olympics.

Goh-Lai hold a slim 3-2 win advantage over their compatriots, but that record won’t mean all that much when both these top 10 pairs go at it.

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