Lee wants to carve out his own legacy

Lee Zii Jia's All England Open triumph almost did not happen.

The Malaysian shuttler, who turns 23 on Monday, was given a show cause letter by the Badminton Association of Malaysia after a poor outing in Thailand in January, when he fell at the first round of the Toyota Thailand Open, and then lost all three of his group games at the BWF World Tour Finals.

In a Zoom interview with global media yesterday, the world No. 8 said: "It was a struggle. I had no confidence, my mind was a blank, and my coaches were as stressed as I was."

While he admitted to "shutting down and becoming anti-social", Lee responded positively by attempting to find solutions on the court.

Instead of returning to his Alor Setar home in Kedah for Chinese New Year, he trained double three-hour sessions almost every day on his own at the Akademi Badminton Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

Although there was an improvement, he still lost to the lower-ranked Thai teenager Kunlavut Vitidsarn at the Swiss Open semi-final this month and was given the option of pulling out of the All England Open if he felt he was not ready.

But Lee persevered and went on to record his first win over Japan's world No. 1 Kento Momota in the quarter-final, before outlasting world No. 2 Victor Axelsen 30-29, 20-22, 21-9 in last Sunday's final to become the fourth Malaysian shuttler to win the men's singles at the prestigious event.

Malaysia men's singles head coach Hendrawan told The Star in an earlier interview: "For a player who has lost his self-belief to bounce back in such a short time and put up the best performance of his career, it's near impossible. We know very well that Zii Jia is capable of beating anyone when he plays to his true level. We never doubted that, it's just his confidence."

As Malaysia's latest badminton hero, talk of becoming the successor to the retired Lee Chong Wei are inevitable. And the comparison is both a compliment and a curse, with the weight of a nation on the shoulders of the 1.86m younger Lee.

During the interview, he repeatedly stated he does not like the tag and wanted to be known as his own man, even as he showed his deference to his compatriot, who won three Olympic silver medals.

He said: "I learnt a lot from his never-say-die attitude. Even though he is already a legend, he is always fighting to win that first Olympics or World Championship.

"Nobody can replace Lee Chong Wei, and it doesn't take anything away from his status even if I go on to win the Olympics or World Championship. That will not mean I am better than him.

"But I am not the second Lee Chong Wei. I am Lee Zii Jia, and I have my own journey. I believe I can achieve my own breakthroughs, and this All England win is a good starting point in my journey."

Next up is the Malaysian Open in May and he is determined not to let his latest achievement be his last, having learnt from the slump he experienced after reaching last year's All England semi-finals.

Vowing to stay humble, he added: "Everyone in the top 10 has the same standard, the difference is consistency. If you are able to maintain good performances, you can get the good results to stay in the top 10 and move into the top five, top three and fight for (the) world No. 1 (spot)."