KUALA LUMPUR: LEE Zii Jia has been bumped up to top seed at the Australian Open following some withdrawals.
Zii Jia, who fell one spot to No. 8 on the world rankings after last week's Indonesia Open, will open his campaign against India's S. Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian on Wednesday.
The former All England champion should advance and meet compatriot Soong Joo Ven in the second round.
With the Olympics looming, many top players, including China's newly minted world No. 1 Shi Yu Qi, Denmark's Viktor Axelsen, Indonesia's Jonatan Christie, and Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn have opted to skip the Australian Open.
Zii Jia, however, chose to make the trip Down Under to safeguard his ranking within the world's top eight for a good seeding at the Olympics. He now only needs to be wary of a handful of players.
Among them are Taiwan's Chou Tien Chen, who has been performing well in recent tournaments, Singapore's Loh Kean Yew, India's H. S. Prannoy and second seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan.
Meanwhile, in the first round on Tuesday, Malaysia's fast rising men's pairs Choong Hon Jian-Haikal Nazri, Wan Arif Wan Junaidi-Yap Roy King, and youngsters Aaron Tai-Kang Khai Xing all came through.
World No. 26 Hon Jian-Haikal thrashed Australia's Jordan Yang-Frederick Zhao 21-9, 21-11, and will face either India's Rajain Abhimanyu-Aman Nandal or Australia's Aneesh Nirmal-Emmanuel Stephen Sam, next.
Fourth seeds Arif-Roy King thumped Australia's Chin Hin Lam-Fu Zi Qiang 21-8, 21-7, and will play the mixed combination of Australia's Ooi Yi Hern and England's Steven Stallwood next.
Aaron-Khai Xing ousted homesters Brendan Wang-Jordan Wang 21-10, 21-9 and will face another Australian pair, Kanki Igawa-Ken Richardson, in the second round.
Independent pair Nur Azriyn Ayub-Tan Wee Kiong powered to a 21-11, 21-16 win over Australia's Timotius Elbert-Tang Huaidong. Azriyn-Ween Kiong will play another Australian combination, Rizky Hidayat-Frengky Wijaya Putra next.