KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 — National men’s singles player, Lee Zii Jia continued his fine form at the 2019 Badminton World Championships by beating China’s Lu Guangzu at the St Jakobshalle Indoor Arena in Basel, Switzerland today.

Zii Jia, who lost the first set, bounced back to seal a 12-21, 21-14, 21-15 victory in the 63-minute encounter.

"It was a good fight just now for both of us, it was not easy to win the match, he had good pace and strategy in first set, luckily I could get back my confidence and started to fight back in the second and third set.

"Tomorrow will be an off day for me, I will be playing either Nishimoto in last 16. So hope I can get a good rest and give my best on Thursday,” said the world 13th-ranked player today.

The 21-year-old would be facing eighth-seeded Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the third round to book his place in the quarter finals.

Five-time world champion, Lin Dan of China, meanwhile, suffered a shock defeat to India’s HS Prannoy 21-11, 13-21, 21-7 in the second round match. Prannoy who is currently ranked 30th in the world, will meet first seed Kento Momota in the third round.

National women’s singles player Soniia Cheah managed to overcome the challenge of Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong in her opening match of the tournament today.

Soniia who win the first set 21-8 almost lost her momentum in the second set but bounced back to seal the match with a 21-18 victory and progressed to the next round.

"Today I’m happy to pull through the first match, she played better in the second set, more patience... but overall I’m happy that I controlled the match.. Tomorrow is a much tougher and stronger wall to break,” she said.

The 26-year-old player is set to face world number nine, Michelle Li of Canada in the second round.

Meanwhile, independent mixed pair, Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying took 51 minutes before they defeated  unseeded Joshua Hurlburt-Yu-Josephine Wu of Canada 21-18, 19-21, 21-16

The fifth seed would be meeting either former teammates Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai or Japan’s Takuro Hoki-Wakana Nagahara.

Men’s independent pair Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif-Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub failed to progress into the second round after losing to Russian Vladimir Ivanov-Ivan Sozonov 12-21, 19-21. — Bernama