KUALA LUMPUR: Olympic bronze medallist Lee Zii Jia's defeat to France's Alex Lanier in the Japan Open's first round last week wasn't as shocking as initially thought, after all.
The 19-year-old prodigy proved his win was no fluke by eventually clinching the Super 750 title, a first for France in men's singles on the World Tour.
Lanier's victory was particularly impressive as he defeated world No. 1 Shi Yu Qi of China in the semi-final and formidable Taiwanese veteran Chou Tien Chen in the final.
Lanier's emergence shouldn't be surprising, given the rise of French shuttlers in recent years. He has been steadily climbing the ranks through victories in lower-tier tournaments on the European circuit. Lanier was the 2022 European Junior champion and won bronze at the World Junior Championships.
He secured his first World Tour title at the Canada Open in 2022. This year, he nearly reclaimed the title, but was beaten by Japan's Koki Watanabe in the final.
Bruce Leverdez deserves credit for the rise of French badminton. Before retiring last year, Leverdez was known for defeating Malaysian legend Lee Chong Wei twice: in the 2016 Denmark Open quarter-finals and the first round of the 2017 Glasgow World Championships.
Leverdez also defeated Olympic champion Chen Long of China at the 2018 Indonesian Open and Anthony Ginting of Indonesia at the 2019 Denmark Open. He holds an impressive 8-3 head-to-head record against Tien Chen.
While France once relied solely on naturalised Chinese player Pi Hongyan to compete at the elite level in the 2000s, that's no longer the case.
Leverdez led France to two Thomas Cup quarter-finals in 2014 and 2018.
Alongside Lanier, the French team boast the Popov brothers, Toma Junior and Christo, and world No. 12 mixed pair Thom Gicquel-Delphine Delrue.
World No. 19 Toma and No. 26 Christo have also made waves this year. Toma defeated Denmark's Viktor Axelsen en route to finishing runner-up at the European Championships, while Christo, a former World Junior Championships silver medallist, won the German Open.