Zii Jia Accepts Defeat To Kunlavut, Hopes For Bronze Rebound

PARIS, Aug 4 (Bernama) -- Malaysia’s professional men’s singles player Lee Zii Jia has accepted his semi-final defeat at the Paris 2024 Olympics and hopes to rebound during the bronze-medal play-off tomorrow. 

Speaking to Bernama after losing 14-21, 15-21 to reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena, Zii Jia indicated that he did not wish to dwell on the loss as he prepares to vie for the bronze medal against India’s Lakshya Sen tomorrow.

“He played a very good match and handled things inside the court very well with very high confidence level. As you can see, his defence, shots with full control on the court and everything just going with his plans.

“I have no choice but to accept this… But for me, (it’s) still not the end of the campaign, still got one match tomorrow. No time for me to think about anything, just need to focus on tomorrow’s match, like a final too,” he said, pointing out that the pressure during the quarter-finals and semi-finals was same. 

“When you reach the semis, who doesn’t want to go to the final, right? You think of all sorts of things - I want to win this, I have a chance - these thoughts popped into my mind then,” he shared.

Meanwhile, Kunlavut, who created history by becoming the first ever Thai singles world champion last year, expressed delight at not only having made it to the finals in his Olympic debut but also to be the first Thai badminton player to win an Olympic medal ever.

“I want to go step by step, don’t want to put too much pressure by thinking too far. After winning the world title, a lot of things happened to me, I can’t train and compete well in tournaments. 

“But in major tournaments like Olympics, I want to give 100 per cent, because unlike BWF World Tour events, where you can try next year, need to wait four years for (the) next Olympics,” he said.

Kunlavut will take on 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in tomorrow’s final.

Axelsen is making his second consecutive Olympic final appearance after he emerged victorious against Lakshya 22-20, 21-14 in the other semi-final match today.

-- BERNAMA