KUALA LUMPUR: With 50 days before the Olympics, world No. 7 Lee Zii Jia acknowledged the importance of honing his game and enhancing his confidence in his bid for a medal in Paris.
Zii Jia's hope of a third successive final in as many tournaments at the Indonesia Open was dashed when he was beaten by Thailand's world champion, Kunlavut Vitidsarn, at Istora Senayan in Jakarta today.
Zii Jia found Kunlavut's defence a tough nut to crack, as he went down 21-16, 21-17 in a match that lasted 53 minutes.
This defeat was his fourth in eight meetings with the Thai ace.
Zii Jia was clearly left rueing the loss, having wished to extend his run following a superb sequence of results in the past two tournaments.
He had triumphed at the Thailand Open and finished second at the Malaysia Masters the following week.
"Kunlavut played very well today, both in terms of control and defence. It was challenging to overcome him with my attacking shots," Zii Jia commented.
"I was on a good run from Thailand and Malaysia, all the way until now, so I wasn't really satisfied with this result.
"However, Kunlavut did play very well, and I had to accept it and move on.
"I need to work on my confidence and gameplay; this is something I must work even harder on when I get back to training."
Zii Jia confirmed that he will be competing at the Australian Open with the aim of maintaining his position within the world's top eight rankings.
This is crucial for securing a favourable seeding that could support his quest for Olympic gold.
"Initially, I didn't anticipate making it to the top eight, but now it seems there's a 90 per cent chance I'll stay there. However, I still have one more tournament to go," said Zii Jia.
It was also the end of the road for world No. 32 Leong Jun Hao who was defeated by China's world No. 4 Li Shi Feng for the third time in a month.
Jun Hao lost 21-11, 21-12, which followed his previous defeats at the Thomas Cup and Malaysia Masters last month.
"It was a tough match today, and I guess Shi Feng was the better player. I tried my best, but I couldn't overcome him.
"I attempted some different techniques, but none of them were effective.
"Whether it's his physical condition or anything else, he's just very strong. Perhaps when I face him in the future, I hope to come up with a better strategy to challenge him."
Aided by his superb run in Jakarta, Jun Hao, who's also a quarter-finalist in Singapore last week, is expected to break the world's top 30 next week.
"Given that this was my Super 1000 debut, it's a positive sign for me to have reached the quarter-finals and defeated some higher-ranked players," said Jun Hao.
"I deserve some credit for this and hope things continue to go well, allowing me to improve even more."