BWF Malaysia Masters 2024: Lee Zii Jia sets up quarter-final against ...

Lee Zii Jia's winning run on badminton's BWF World Tour continued on Thursday (23 May) as he won his second-round match at his home Malaysia Masters 2024 in straight games.

The Malaysian, who was crowned Thailand Open men's singles champion last week, took 44 minutes to beat Indian opponent Kiran George in Kuala Lumpur.

Fifth seed Lee started strongly, pulling away from George in the first game by a comfortable margin to take it 21-13.

But George, ranked 36th in the world to Lee's 10th, did better in the second, even leading it 15-13 at one point before a late surge from the home favourite took him to a 21-13, 21-18 match victory.

It means Lee sets up a tantalising quarter-final clash against second seed and world number four Anders Antonsen of Denmark.

In seven previous meetings between the two, Lee has only won twice. Antonsen won their last clash at the Kumamoto Japan Masters in 2023.

The later rounds of the Malaysia Masters will be available to watch live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics mobile app, subject to territorial restrictions applying.

Top seed and men's world number one Viktor Axelsen is also into the last eight, where he faces Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien-chen.

Axelsen, competing in his first World Tour event since losing in the quarter-finals at the All England Open in mid-March, saw off Thai qualifier Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul 21-18, 21-13.

World number 79 Panitchaphon was impressive against the Olympic champion, holding his own in the first game and coming back from five points behind to level it at 16-16 before Axelsen found another gear.

The second game was also fairly close with Axelsen just two points ahead at 10-8 before he tallied 11 of the last 16 points to seal his progress to the quarters.

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