Zii Jia faces early danger from world No. 1 Yu Qi

KUALA LUMPUR: Olympic bronze medallist Lee Zii Jia has landed a tough draw for his Malaysia Open return, with the prospect of facing China's world No. 1 and defending champion Shi Yu Qi as early as the last-16.

All eyes will be on Zii Jia as he returns to competitive action for the first time since September, and the home event — the Super 1000 season opener of the 2026 BWF World Tour — could not be a more fitting stage to gauge his progress.

The tournament will be held at the Axiata Arena from Jan 6–11.

Zii Jia opens against world No. 32 Ayush Shetty of India, the 2025 US Open champion, in what will be their first career meeting.

It remains a demanding assignment for a player easing his way back after several months out of competition.

The 27-year-old has not played since the China Masters in September, where he retired midway through his match.

He later chose to end his season early to focus on recovery and strength work, prioritising long-term stability over short-term results.

His last victory came at the Orleans Masters in March, before a run of first-round exits — including at the All England and World Championships — underlined the physical struggles he was facing.

The decision to reset followed soon after.

This week, therefore, marks the start of a genuine comeback rather than a continuation of past frustrations.

If he gets past Shetty, the challenge could escalate sharply.

Yu Qi leads their head-to-head 5–1 and will arrive in strong form, having recently won the King Cup invitational hosted by Lin Dan.

He also reached five consecutive World Tour finals in the closing stretch of this year, winning three.

The same half of the draw contains more heavyweight names: World Tour Finals champion and world No. 7 Christo Popov of France, Denmark's Anders Antonsen and Taiwan's Chou Tien Chen — the world No. 3 and No. 6 respectively.

Even so, the Malaysia Open offers exactly what Zii Jia, who sits at lowly No. 144, needs — high-quality matches that clearly show where he stands.

His record at the event has been modest, with first-round exits in 2019, 2023 and 2024, and a solitary second-round run in 2022.

This time, however, expectations are framed around fitness, composure and signs of upward movement rather than purely results.

Meanwhile, Leong Jun Hao leads Malaysia's challenge in the bottom half.

He opens against China's world No. 29 Wang Zheng Xing, with the possibility of meeting Indonesia's world No. 4 Jonatan Christie in the next round.

It will be interesting to see how Jun Hao measures up against Zheng Xing, who stunned many by finishing runner-up at the China Open but failed to clear the first round in most of his other tournaments.

This will be Jun Hao's second only appearance at the Malaysia Open, after bowing out in the first round last year.

That section also features Thailand's world No. 2 Kunlavut Vitidsarn, France's Alex Lanier and Japan's Kodai Naraoka — ranked No. 7 and No. 9 respectively.

Malaysia once dominated the men's singles at the Malaysia Open, with Lee Chong Wei winning a record 12 titles between 2004 and 2018. He remains the last home player to taste success across all five events.