LEE Zii Jia may have fallen short in his bid to defend his All England crown, but take nothing away from his top drawer performance over the past one week in Birmingham.
After staging a brilliant upset win over two-time world champion Kento Momota of Japan in the quarter-finals on Friday, Zii Jia came out with guns blazing for the semi-final but his efforts were halted by India's fast rising Lakshya Sen, who scored a brilliant 21-13, 12-21, 21-19 victory to reach his maiden All England final.
However, Zii Jia can take heart from his performance which even drew praise from former world No 1 Lee Chong Wei. The question now is can he stay hungry and consistent?
Zii Jia coach Indra Wijaya said: "First of all, allow me to say that Zii Jia produced one of his best performance here at the All England. In the semi-final, both he and Lakshya were extraordinary,"
"In badminton, you are bound to have a winner and a loser. Unfortunately Zii Jia was on the receiving end in the semi-final.
"We will head back to Kuala Lumpur with all the experience we gained in Europe, and evaluate our performance to come back stonger.
"The men's single event today is very competitive. The goal is to have Zii Jia play like he did against Momota and Lakshya, consistently," added the Indonesian coach who left BAM to join Zii Jia's professional team last month.