KUALA LUMPUR: Lee Zii Jia suffered a disappointing early exit at the Kumamoto Masters Japan after crashing out in the first round of qualifying on Tuesday.
The world No. 40 went down 21-15, 21-10 to Japan’s world No. 48 Minoru Koga, ending his campaign before he could even reach the main draw of the Super 500 tournament.
It was a reversal of fortunes for the 28-year-old, who had comfortably beaten Koga 21-14, 21-10 in their only previous meeting at the Swiss Open qualifiers in March.
The setback comes just weeks after Zii Jia had shown encouraging signs of a resurgence by reaching the semis of Arctic Open last month.