Sport

From world number 8 to 144: Ranking concerns push Zii Jia back to action at Malaysian Open

Published on 4 Jan 2026 3:07:45 PM

Former Asian champion Lee Zii Jia has admitted that fears over his steep slide in the world rankings pushed him to press ahead with competing in the Malaysian Open, which begins on Tuesday (Jan 6).

Despite still having around two months remaining under the protected world ranking he applied for with the Badminton World Federation (BWF), Zii Jia felt he could not afford to wait any longer.

Read more at https://tinyurl.com/mrc8zeev

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