Star Indian shuttler Ayush Shetty on Tuesday beat home favourite and Paris Olympics bronze medallist Lee Zii Jia in straight games in the opening round of the Malaysia Open to send a strong message to all the other
men’s singles players.
Ayush, who is coming off a quarterfinal finish at the Australian Open and Hylo Open in November, looked at ease throughout the match against Lee Zii Jia and didn’t have to break much sweat to get the better of the latter.
Ayush also finished as a quarterfinalist at the Hong Kong Open in September.
This was the first meeting between the 20-year-old Indian shuttler and the much-experienced Lee Zii Jia.
Coming off a roller-coaster 2025, where he took part in just five tournaments throughout the year, Lee Zii Jia didn’t look at his best.
Ayush took the first game comfortably, winning it 21-12.
In the second game, with the change of sides, Lee Zii Jia looked more in flow and Ayush never managed a massive lead over the home favourite, who received loud cheers on winning every point.
Lee Zii Jia and Ayush were level at 17-all and the former threatened to take the second game and push the match into a decider. But an unforced error from him gave Ayush the breakthrough, as he bagged the next three points to win the match.
The Indian shuttler will next take on top seed Shi Yu Qi on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Malvika Bansod lost in straight games to seventh seed Ratchanok Intanon. Lakshya Sen beat Jia Heng Jason Teh in a three-game thriller (21-16, 15-21, 21-14).
Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun lost in straight games to Hiroki Midorikawa and Kyohei Yamashita.
Schedule for Day 2
Dhruv Kapila-Tanisha Crasto vs Presley Smith-Jennie Gai: 6:40 am IST, Court 3
PV Sindhu vs Sung Shuo Yun: 7:20 am IST, Court 1
Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand vs Febriana Kusuma-Meilysa Puspitasari: 9:50 am IST, Court 1
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty vs Lee Jhe-Huei-Yang Po-Hsuan: 11:30 am IST, Court 2
Rutuparna & Swetaparna Panda vs Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan: 12:20 pm IST, Court 1
Rohan Kapoor-Ruthvika Shivani Gadde vs Jiang Zhen Bang-Wei Ya Xin: 2 pm IST, Court 2
Ashith Surya-Amrutha Pramuthesh vs Phuwanat Horbanluekit-Benyapa Aimsaard: 2:50 pm IST, Court 1
Kavipriya Selvam-Simran Singhi vs Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto: 4:30 pm IST, Court 1
/images/ppid_a911dc6a-image-176766805772783365.webp)
