KUALA LUMPUR: Lee Zii Jia wants to conquer the European swing of tournaments to achieve a career-high ranking of world No 2.
Fresh from a brief yet fruitful joint-training session with the Denmark national team in Brondby last week, world No 3 Zii Jia believes he is in good form to make an impact in Europe.
The 24-year-old shuttler will resume his season at the Denmark Open, which starts tomorrow in Odense.
The Super 750 tournament marks the return of the World Tour after a six-week break.
Zii Jia is aware good results in the next three weeks in Europe will see him move up the men's singles world rankings.
He will also compete in the French Open (Oct 25-30) and Hylo Open in Germany (Nov 1-6).
To achieve his world No 2 goal, the Malaysian will have to unseat Danish star Anders Antonsen, who is ranked behind world No 1 compatriot Viktor Axelsen.
Apart from the world ranking quest, Zii Jia, who opens his campaign against Dutchman Mark Caljouw this week, is keen to add the Denmark Open crown to his growing title collection, just for the prestige alone.
Inaugurated in 1936, the Denmark Open is the world's second-oldest tournament after the All England.
Only three Malaysians have won the Denmark Open men's singles crown. They are Eddie Choong (1953), Tan Aik Huang (1967, 1968) and Lee Chong Wei (2005, 2012).
So, will Zii Jia's one-week training stint in Denmark pay off?
However, no one could confirm whether he had the chance to train with Axelsen and Antonsen in Denmark.
Nonetheless, Zii Jia was pleased with what he had gained from the training sessions under Denmark head coach Kenneth Jonassen.
"The training time here is rather short. It emphasises intensity and quality," Zii Jia told Denmark's TV2 Sport.
"It's good to have high-intensity training before a tournament."
Jonassen did not see the presence of Denmark's two biggest rivals, including 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore, at their training ground as a threat.
The 48-year-old Jonassen, a former world No 2, said it was a win-win understanding between the parties.
"It makes super good sense to have them in our training, not only for the quality they bring, but also the different culture," Jonassen told TV2 Sport.
"We may even set up a base in Asia for a week or so in the future if we have to play in a lot of tournaments there."
Jonassen played down the risk of exposing the Danish national team's training methods to the rivals.
"You have to train here a bit longer to understand the idea behind the things we do. So, I'm not too afraid of that," he stressed.
Zii Jia and Kean Yew are drawn in the same half at the Denmark Open.