Veteran Malaysian shuttler Lee Zii Jia has decided to withdraw from the Thailand Masters 2024 due to undisclosed reasons.
The year 2024 is a very important year for badminton with the calendar packed with tournaments throughout the year. With the All-England Open, Indonesia Masters and French Open another it will be a very busy schedule for shuttlers around the world. However, the marquee tournament this year will be the Paris Olympics which is scheduled in between July and August.
Naturally, many athletes are looking to keep themselves “injury-free”. The latest entry to this list has been Lee Zii Jia. The Malaysian shuttler has reportedly announced his withdrawal from the upcoming Thailand Masters which is scheduled from January 30 to February 4.
The BWF calendar 2024 started with the Malaysia Open 2024 kicking off recently. However, the veteran Malaysian shuttler had a torrid start to the new season. Lee Zii Jia is out after suffering a three-game defeat to Lu Guangzu of China in the opening round itself.
This frustrating result means Lee’s woeful performances on home soil continue. The 25-year-old Malaysian has not made it beyond the second round at the Malaysia Open in his career. Moreover, he has now gone nine tournaments without making the final at both the Malaysia Open and Malaysia Masters.
This is not the first time Jia has decided to take a temporary break from his professional career. In 2023 after entering the Indonesia Open with back-to-back losses, Lee decided to hang up his racket to reignite his enthusiasm for the sport. That decision of the Malaysian had sent his fans into crazy and frenzied emotions.
Lee had announced his break even after successful semi-finalist positions at the All England and the Swiss Open badminton tournaments. Naturally, this possibility also remains in contention when Lee announces yet another break in the international badminton roster which he recently posted. Moreover, given the Paris Olympics is around the corner this has been a very wise decision on the part of the athlete to keep his body injury-free.
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