KUALA LUMPUR: Going by Lee Zii Jia's form and recent results, the world No. 7 is expected to brush off Sri Lanka's Viren Nettasinghe easily in his Group G match at the Paris Olympics.
For the 21-year-old Viren, the youngest shuttler to represent his country at the Olympics, it will be a perfect opportunity to grab some attention at the world's biggest multi-sport Games.
The badminton event starts on July 27 at Porte de La Chapelle Arena in Paris.
However, the world No. 70's focus a day before will be the opening ceremony, as he will lead the Sri Lanka contingent on a boat on the Seine River as flag-bearer.
While not much is expected from Viren, he hopes to make a strong impression, with 36-year-old Pablo Abian from Spain also drawn in Group G.
Viren has made decent progress in the sport.
He was a semi-finalist at the Iran Fajr International and Swedish Open this year, and his best performance last year was reaching the Indonesia International Challenge final.
However, his results in lower-tier tournaments are nothing compared to Zii Jia's achievements this year.
Zii Jia, the 2021 All England champion, won the Thailand Open and Australia Open and was runner-up at the Malaysia Masters this year.
For Zii Jia, the match against Viren is like a warm-up before the knockout stage, while for the Sri Lankan, it's a perfect opportunity to learn from a world-beater.
Viren amassed 24,030 ranking points during the one-year Olympic qualifying period, placing him 32nd among the qualifiers for the Paris Games.
"It's an overwhelming feeling to achieve such a feat of representing my country at an Olympic Games at my age. "Nothing would have been possible if not for the backing of my parents, the Sri Lanka Badminton (SLB), and the Ministry of Sports.
"They had confidence in me, and finally I was able to deliver," Viren told Sri Lanka's Sunday Times recently.
To support Viren's Olympic journey, SLB brought in a foreign coach and sparring partners from India and Indonesia to help him prepare.
With this support, SLB hopes Viren will make a lasting impression in Paris.