National No. 1 undecided over playing for country or self

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s preparations for the Thomas Cup Finals has been hit by the possibility that top singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia might skip the tournament.

World No. 10 Zii Jia is thinking of prioritising his preparations for the Paris Olympics in July over competing in the prestigious team meet from April 27-May 5 in Chengdu.

National coaching director Rexy Mainaky, who held discussions with Zii Jia’s sister and manager Lee Zii Yii and coach Wong Tat Meng, disclosed that Zii Jia is still undecided on his participation in the tournament.

“Zii Jia has not made a decision on whether he will compete in the Thomas Cup or not,” said Rexy after meeting with Zii Yii and Tat Meng at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara yesterday.

“The Olympics is quite close to the team meet this year and he is focusing on breaking into the world’s top eight by July.

“He has many tournaments coming up like the Asian Championships (April 9-14), Malaysian Masters (May 21-26), Singapore Open (May 28-June 2), Indonesian Open (June 4-9) and Australian Open (June 11-16) and it will be quite a heavy workload for him together with the team meet.

“I had a discussion with Zii Yii and Tat Meng regarding this and nothing is finalised yet.