By Elmi Rizal Elias<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TOKYO, July 29 (NNN-Bernama) — National men\u2019s singles ace Lee Zii Jia marched stylishly into the round of 16 of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with a masterful 21-17, 21-5 win over France\u2019s Brice Leverdez in their final Group M match here Wednesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World number eight Zii Jia looked swift and sharp as he tamed the Frenchman in just 35 minutes at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the first game, the 23-year-old Zii Jia, who is making his maiden Olympic appearance, got off to a slow start to trail the Frenchman 4-7 before turning on the style to bag 10 straight points to lead 14-7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Leverdez slowly crept back into contention, Zii Jia managed to close off the first game with a crosscourt smash for a 21-17 win in 19 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zii Jia, the reigning All England champion, was in total control of the second game as he produced a clinical performance to brush aside the world number 36 Frenchman 21-5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, it won\u2019t be easy for Zii Jia in the round of 16 on Thursday (July 29) as he is down to face 2016 Rio Olympic gold medallist Chen Long of China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zii Jia said his strategy forcing Leverdez into long rallies paid off, especially in the second game as he collected point after point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe (Leverdez) does not like rallies and my plan in forcing him to do so and not rushing to get my points worked wonders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zii Jia admitted that he faces a tricky task against world number six Chen Long on Thursday (July 29).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCheng Long is very experienced and Thursday\u2019s match surely won\u2019t be easy. I hope to be well prepared and give my 100 per cent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— NNN-BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Elmi Rizal Elias TOKYO, July 29 (NNN-Bernama) — National men\u2019s singles ace Lee Zii Jia marched stylishly into the round of 16 of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with a masterful 21-17, 21-5 win over France\u2019s Brice Leverdez in their final Group M match here Wednesday night. World number eight Zii Jia looked swift and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":132653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215,288,318,190],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132649"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/132653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}