Badminton

Zii Jia still better than me, says shuttler Tze Yong

KUALA LUMPUR: Men's singles Ng Tze Yong admitted there is still a gap between him and Lee Zii Jia in terms of strength and power.

The world No. 25 lost 21-8, 18-21, 21-12 to world No. 8 Zii Jia at the recent President's Cup in Bukit Kiara.

Despite several encouraging results this season, including a sensational upset over world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the second round of the All England in March, Tze Yong has yet to make a huge impact on the BWF World Tour.

After competing in six tournaments, his best results were making the quarter-finals of the Thailand Masters, All England and Swiss Open.

It begs the question of whether the Johor-born would be preferred to start ahead of Zii Jia in the Sudirman Cup group ties against Taiwan and India this month (May 14-21). The other team in Group C is Australia.

Tze Yong said: "We all played our best, and it was a good experience for me. However, based on current form, Zii Jia is indeed better than me."

Taiwan and India are expected to play their best men's singles shuttlers in world No. 5 Chou Tien Chen and world No. 9 H.S. Prannoy against Malaysia.

On whether he was confident of taking on either player, Tze Yong replied: "I have never played against Prannoy, so I don't know what will happen.

"Either way, the decision lies with our coaches. We will discuss to see what works best."

Only the top two teams from each group will qualify for the knockout stage of the Sudirman Cup.

The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has set a semi-final target for the team.

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