{"id":3136,"date":"2026-01-07T06:00:03","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/?p=3136"},"modified":"2026-01-07T06:00:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:00:03","slug":"zii-jia-thankful-of-fans-after-injury-comeback-at-malaysia-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/zii-jia-thankful-of-fans-after-injury-comeback-at-malaysia-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Zii Jia thankful of fans after injury comeback at Malaysia Open"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lee Zii Jia expressed gratitude to his badminton fans following his return to competitive action at the 2026 Malaysia Open on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old, who endured an injury-plagued 2025 season, made his first competitive appearance since suffering a back injury at the China Masters last September, as he faced Ayush Shetty in the men\u2019s singles first round at the Axiata Arena.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">You won&#8217;t believe this save! \ud83d\ude31<\/p>\n<p>Follow live action: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TjoFnU4PnB\">https:\/\/t.co\/TjoFnU4PnB<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HSBC_Sport?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@HSBC_Sport<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BWFWorldTour?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BWFWorldTour<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MalaysiaOpen2026?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MalaysiaOpen2026<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/teDmF7z7BG\">pic.twitter.com\/teDmF7z7BG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 BWF (@bwfmedia) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bwfmedia\/status\/2008473850573373635?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 6, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>However, there was no fairytale comeback for the Olympic bronze medalist as he fell 12-21, 17-21 to the Indian shuttler in 39 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his disappointment with the early exit, Lee was still able to take positives from the outing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was not satisfied with my performance, but I know my opponent wasn\u2019t an easy one and he can be considered a rising star,\u201d he said in a post-match interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPhysically, I do not feel fully fit yet. Right now, it\u2019s around 50 to 60 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I\u2019m happy that I could play here again, and I\u2019m also touched by the support from the fans who are still very patient with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lee is scheduled to continue his comeback at the India Open next week, before competing at the Indonesia Masters and Thailand Masters later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lee Zii Jia expressed gratitude to his badminton fans following his return to competitive action at the 2026 Malaysia Open on Tuesday. The 27-year-old, who endured an injury-plagued 2025 season, made his first competitive appearance since suffering a back injury at the China Masters last September, as he faced Ayush Shetty in the men\u2019s singles &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/zii-jia-thankful-of-fans-after-injury-comeback-at-malaysia-open\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Zii Jia thankful of fans after injury comeback at Malaysia Open<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[299,225,223],"class_list":["post-3136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","tag-badminton-en","tag-bwf-world-tour","tag-lee-zii-jia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3136"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3139,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3136\/revisions\/3139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}