Top seed Zii Jia suffers early exit in Swiss Open

Source: Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: Professional men's singles player Lee Zii Jia was knocked out in the second round of the Swiss Open by India's K Srikanth last night in Basel, Switzerland.

This was his first defeat in three meetings against the former world No 1, who took just 36 minutes to defeat the tournament's top seed 21-16, 21-15. Srikanth is currently ranked world No 27.

This was another disappointment for Zii Jia, the world No 10, who got knocked out of the All England quarterfinals last week to another Indian player, Lakshya Sen, who is ranked 13th.

With the Paris Olympics looming, Zii Jia continues to show erratic form as he has failed to make a mark in six World Tour appearances so far this year.

He previously lost in the first round of two events - at the Malaysian Open in January and French Open earlier this month - and was knocked out in the quarterfinal stage at the Indonesia Open and India Open, both in January, and All England.

In other matches involving Malaysians, there was mixed fortune for our two mixed doubles pairs.

Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei defeated India's K. Sathish Kumar-Aadya Variyath 21-17, 21-14 but Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See lost 22-24, 21-11, 19-21 to Hiroki Midorikawa-Natsu Saito of Japan.

Third seeds Tang Jie-Ee Wei will next meet Thailand's Supak Jomkoh-Supissara Paewsampran in the third round.