BWF Swiss Open 2024: Lee Zii Jia survives first-game scare to beat ...

Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia suffered an early hiccup but eventually recovered to register a comfortable first-round win at the BWF Swiss Open 2024 badminton tournament, which is live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com (territorial restrictions apply), on Wednesday (20 March).

It seemed like the world number 10 was easily leading Chinese Taipei's Su Li-Yang in the opening game, finding himself five points ahead at 13-8. But Su rallied to tally seven straight points and force Lee to dig deep.

Su led 17-14 and again at 19-17, but Lee – who has struggled with his consistency but has recently found some rhythm – managed to find an extra gear to take the opening game. That seemed to give the Malaysian a boost of confidence heading into the second game, and Lee looked at lot more at ease.

The 25-year-old opened up an early advantage and, unlike in the first, never opened the door for a comeback by Su.

Eventually, he triumphed 21-19, 21-12 in 42 minutes despite his earlier stumble.

Lee, who is the top seed in Basel, next plays former world number one Kidambi Srikanth of India in another tough test.

However, second seed Loh Kean Yew is out after his poor season continued with a loss to Su's compatriot Lin Chun-Yi.

The opening game between the two was a tight affair with both men edging slightly ahead multiple times before Lin closed it out 21-18.

Singapore's Loh will feel disappointed that he let a decent lead in the second slip, with Lin winning 11 of the last 14 points to clinch a 21-18, 21-13 win in only 35 minutes.

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Meanwhile, Spain's Carolina Marín also booked her safe passage through to the second round.

The women's singles top seed needed just 34 minutes to see off Chinese Taipei shuttler Lin Hsiang-Ti 21-15, 21-10.

A close first game saw the lead change hands multiple times before Marín took the last five points consecutively to assert her dominance.

Another spellbinding seven-point streak in the second ensured Lin was not able to fight back in the second.