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Lee Zii Jia (Chinese: 李梓嘉; pinyin: Lǐ Zǐjiā, born 29 March 1998) is a Malaysian badminton player. He was the men's singles gold medalist at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games and won the 2021 All England Open Badminton Championship.
Lee Zii Jia was born in Alor Setar, Kedah to Chinese Malaysians Lee Chee Hin and Leow Siet Peng, teachers and former basketball internationals. He was first introduced to badminton by his parents at the age of 6. In his earlier years, he studied at Keat Hwa H Primary School in Alor Setar, Kedah. Due to his results in the under 12 competition, he was soon drafted into the Bukit Jalil Sports School.
2017
In February 2017, Lee reached the semifinals of the Thailand Masters, where he lost to Wangcharoen. He won his first senior title at the Polish International, against Joo Ven in the final.
2018
In doing so, he became the second Malaysian other than Lee Chong Wei to win a BWF top flight men's singles title since 2013. Lee then reached the final of the Korea Masters but lost to Son Wan-ho.
2019
Lee started the 2019 season by competing in the Thailand Masters. He lost in the quarter finals to Brice Leverdez of France in straight games. In the next tournaments, he also finished in the quarter finals in Malaysia Masters, Indonesia Masters, and German Open. He later lost in the early stage of Swiss, Malaysia, and Singapore Open's. He admitted that he had struggled to cope with financial difficulties, lack of progress and unfairness that affected his performance.
In August, Lee finally managed to make it into the semi-finals in the Thailand Open, where he lost to Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei. This was nonetheless an improvement to his being a quarter finalist in New Zealand and Indonesia Open's. He qualified to compete in World Championships in Basel, Switzerland, but lost to the World No. 1 men's singles player, and the eventual World Champion, Kento Momota of Japan in the quarter finals. In November, he was forced to retire in the second round of the China Open, and decided to withdraw as well from the next tournament in Hong Kong, due suffering from food poisoning and fever. Lee reached world No. 11 in the BWF World ranking on November 12th. In December, he won the men's singles gold medal at the Southeast Asian Games, and also helped the national men's team win the silver medal.
2020
Lee opened the season by participating in Southeast Asian tours in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand Masters, with his best result being a semi-finalist in Malaysia, wherein he lost to the world number 1 Kento Momota in straight games. In February, he alongside Malaysia men's team, won the silver medal at the Asia Team Championships, during which time he was the national team captain He won 4 out of 5 matches in the Asia Team Championships, losing in the final match against Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
Later in March, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Europe, the German Open was cancelled. Lee's next tournament was the All England Open, which was also be his debut at the tournament because his ranking was previously too low to qualify. He won against Jonatan Christie, who had won in four previous matches. He continued this win streak against Lu Guangzu and then the Olympic champion Chen Long. In the semi final match, he lost to Viktor Axelsen. The match lasted for 73 minutes. Further, Lee's performance at the All England Open raised his world ranking to no. 10 on 17 March 2020.
2021: All England Open title
In March, Lee won his first Super 1000 tournament at the All England Open, defeating the defending champion Viktor Axelsen by a score of 30-29, 20-22, 21-9. In July 2021, in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Lee took part in the men's singles and won against Artem Pochtarov with a score of 21-5 and 21-11. In the subsequent match against Brice Leverdez, he won with a score of 21-17 and 21-5. Lee was eliminated in the round of 16, where he was defeated by Chen Long with a score of 21-8, 19-21, and 5-21.
2022: Leaving BAM and subsequent ban
In January 2022, there were speculation that Lee has indicated his intention to leave the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), citing unhappiness with the association. He eventually officially resigned on 19 January, becoming an independent player. In response, Lee was banned for two years from participating in any international tournaments that requires BAM's approval as well as any Badminton World Federation (BWF)-sanctioned tournaments. With the public and international players responding negatively on the ban, Lee appealed against the ban on 24 January 2022. The ban would be lifted after Lee and BAM met on 25 January 2022, with the terms yet to be revealed.
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