KUALA LUMPUR: Lee Zii Jia may not have been active of late, but he still moved up one spot to No. 7 in the latest men's singles world rankings today.
This came as a surprise as the shuttler is skipping all the tournaments in January to nurse an ankle injury suffered at the World Tour Finals last month.
He missed the Malaysia Open and India Open, as well as the ongoing Indonesia Masters.
There has been no new development on the 27-year-old's condition, and there are concerns that he could miss the Asia Mixed Team Championships next month in Qingdao, China. National coaching director Rexy Mainaky is due to name the Malaysian squad on Thursday.
Leong Jun Hao, the country's No.2 men's singles player, has gone up one spot from last week, to world No. 27.
Men's doubles Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun also rose one spot, to 13th in the world. Arif Junaidi-Yap Roy King soared three places to 20th.