Lee Zii Jia will be the country’s biggest hope of claiming the biggest prize in Asia when he returns to competitive action at the Badminton Asia Championships (BAC), which begins in Manila next week (April 26-May 1).

Asia’s premiere individual event is marking a return after a two-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, boasting the region’s best including Kento Momota, Anthony Ginting and Lee himself.

The world number seven, all fired up ahead of his BAC debut, did not have any competitive action since crashing out in the semi-finals of the All England Open in March.

“I will go all out. This is my first Asia Championships and I will always give it everything I have. All the top players are here, so I’m sure everyone will want to warm up well before the Thomas Cup begins, he told the New Straits Times.

The last Malaysian emerging victorious in the regional meet was Lee Chong Wei back in 2016.

Before that, it was the Chinese who dominated the men's singles since 2009 through Lin Dan, Chen Jin, Bao Chunlai and Du Pengyu.

For Zii Jia, the mission would be to end the stranglehold of defending champion Momota, who won the previous two editions in 2018 and 2019.

Zii Jia, who is seeded third, plays China’s Sun Fei Xiang in the opening round.

The newly turned independent shuttler joined the national training at the Academy Badminton Malaysia since last week, and returned on Friday after a two-day absence to attend to some personal matters.

Besides him, there are several other Malaysians in the men’s singles event.

Ng Tze Yong has to navigate a tricky first-round encounter against seventh seeded K. Srikanth, while Aidil Sholeh faces an equally challenging encounter against Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu-Wei.

Liew Daren, meanwhile, takes on South Korean Heo Kwang-hee.

The national contingent depart for Manila on Saturday, and right after that make their way to Bangkok for the Thomas & Uber Cup finals (May 8-15).