Lee Zii Jia and Supanida Katethong crowned BWF Thailand Open ...

19 May 2024

Olympics

By Ockert de Villiers

2 min|

Picture by 2023 Getty Images

Malaysian badminton star Lee Zii Jia was in rampant form to capture the 2024 BWF Thailand Open title in straight games in Bangkok on Sunday (19 May).

The 26-year-old shuttler was in fine fettle in the one-sided men's singles final, beating Hong Kong China’s Ng Ka Long Angus 21-11, 21-10 to claim his second Thailand Open crown, having also won in 2022.

Lee came up against a seasoned campaigner in Ng, who won the 2020 tournament and featured in three previous finals. The day before, Ng had fought back valiantly in his semi-final to set up the clash against Lee.

But Lee knocked the fight out of Ng early on in the match taking a commanding 21-11 lead going into the second game.

Ng had no answers to the brilliance of Lee and by the mid-game interval, the Malaysian already enjoyed a seven-point advantage at 11-4. The lead grew after the break with Ng landing the odd point with little consequence.

Lee put the hammer down and stormed ahead to clinch the title, giving the Malaysian a boost ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Earlier, home favourite Supanida Katethong delivered some of the best badminton of her career to take down top seed Han Yue of the People’s Republic of China to claim her maiden Thailand Open title. Katethong won the women’s singles final 21-16, 25-23.

Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai gave the home crowd more to cheer about winning the women’s doubles final.

The duo beat Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi 21-14, 21-14 for a Thai sweep of the women’s titles.

Earlier, India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty clinched the men’s doubles title after beating China’s Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi. The world number three pair claimed a dominant 21-15, 21-15 victory in 36 minutes.