KUALA LUMPUR: Lee Zii Jia has confirmed his spot in the Paris Olympics, but it is not looking too good for world No. 18 Ng Tze Yong.
On Tuesday, Badminton Asia published the draw for the Asian Championships on April 9-14, and both Malaysian men's singles players will have their work cut out for them.
World No. 10 Zii Jia, who will be making his second Olympic appearance this year after the 2020 Tokyo Games, will open his Asian campaign in Ningbo against India's Priyanshu Rajawat.
However, the Malaysian's acid test will be in the second round where he will face Taiwan's Chou Tien Chen or China's Weng Hong Yang.
Barring any upsets, Zii Jia, who won the title in 2022, could face newly crowned All England champion Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in the quarter-finals.
Other notable players in the top half of the draw are China's Shi Yu Qi, India's Lakshya Sen, and Singapore's former world champion Loh Kean Yew.
Separately, it remains to be seen if Tze Yong will be fit to play in the Asian meet, as he has yet to recover from a spinal disc surgery.
Tze Yong, however, must play and reach the semi-finals at least if he wants to qualify for the Paris Games.
As it stands, Tze Yong is No. 17 on the Race to Paris standings, and must claw his way back into the top 16 to make the cut.
The 24-year-old will play Taiwan's Wang Tzu Wei in the first round but is slated to face reigning Asian Games champion Li Shi Feng of China in the second.
Should Tze Yong clear the second round, he could face India's K. Srikanth or Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the last eight.
Notable players in the bottom half of the draw include Japan's Kodai Naraoka and India's H.S. Prannoy.
For the record, the Asian Championships is the last tournament to offer Olympic ranking points. The one-year qualification period started in May last year.