Zii Jia trips up against coach’s former charge

PETALING JAYA: Lee Zii Jia continued to stumble as he kicked off a new chapter in his professional career under new coach Wong Tat Meng at the Korean Open.

The independent men’s singles shuttler, who was making his comeback to competitions after taking a break for a month, went down 15-21, 21-18, 17-21 to Tat Meng’s former charge Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong in the first round at the Jinnam Stadium in Yeosu yesterday.

In the highly anticipated match, which was also the first for Angus under the tutelage of former Malaysia’s singles coaching director Wong Choong Hann, the Hong Kong star displayed greater tenacity in the deciding game to come away with the win.

World No. 17 Zii Jia made too many errors in the second half of the third game, which proved costly.

World No. 14 Angus was leading 19-13 when Zii Jia tried to mount a fightback but it was too late.

The latter won four points to come to 17-19 but Angus managed to hold on to get the last two points for victory.

It was Angus’ fourth consecutive win over Zii Jia in their past five meetings.

A clearly uphappy Zii Jia said: “I have nothing much to say. I tried my best (but it was not to be).

“I will come back again.”

It was the 25-year-old’s fifth straight early-round defeat in individual tournaments.

Zii Jia had also suffered the same fate in the Asian Championships, Malaysian Masters, Singapore Open and Indonesian Open.

He will now need to pick himself up for the Japan Open next week.

Meanwhile, national player Ng Tze Yong made it into the second round after brushing aside India’s Mithun Manjunath 21-11, 21-4.

World No. 23 Tze Yong will take on none other than Angus next for a place in the quarter-finals.

Both players are evenly matched based on the head-to-head record that stands at 1-1.

Tze Yong stunned Angus in the Singapore Open last year but lost to him in the Thailand Masters in January.