KUALA LUMPUR: A relieved Lee Zii Jia has qualified for the World Tour Finals (WTF) in Hangzhou on Dec 11-15 despite his first round loss in the China Masters yesterday (Nov 20).
Zii Jia, currently sixth in the World Tour standings (only the top seven will qualify) was facing threats from No.7 Koki Watanabe of Japan and No. 8 Li Shifeng of China for a spot in the WTF.
But both Watanabe and Shifeng also fell in the first round of the China Masters, thus paving the way for Olympic bronze medallist Zii Jia to get his WTF ticket.
The lucrative WTF, which offers US$200,000 (RM893,000) for the singles champion, has already guaranteed Zii Jia US$15,000 (RM67,000) for qualifying for the tournament.
The top seven players in the World Tour rankings will join the Olympic champion (Viktor Axelsen of Denmark) in the WTF.
It was a close race for Zii Jia, but the former All England champion eventually won his fight to reach the season finale in Hangzhou.
The top five in the World Tour — Anders Antonsen of Denmark, Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan, Kodai Naraoka of Japan, Shi Yu Qi of China and Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn — have confirmed their spots in the WTF.
Though the Super 750 China Masters will be followed by the Super 300 Syed Modi International, there will be no change in the qualifying list as none of the top 15 men's singles players are competing in the Lucknow tournament next week.
Former national high performance director Datuk James Selvaraj said that while it was good to see Zii Jia achieving his goal of making it to the WTF, the independent shuttler should have new goals for next year.
"The WTF qualification was something Zii Jia has been chasing over the last few months and it is good to see him achieve it. Win or lose in Hangzhou, he must start preparing early for 2025," said James.
"He has done reasonably well by winning a couple of titles and also the Paris Olympic bronze, and it is time to have New Year's resolutions and to train hard to achieve those goals.
"It was obvious since Paris that his physical condition and performance have dipped due to lack of training. He must start to do extra training and become a complete player. The unforced errors should also be reduced as all the hard work will be wasted due to this."
Zii Jia won the Thailand and Australia Opens, both Super 500 events, this year.
Men's pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani, women's pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, and mixed doubles Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai are the other Malaysians who have qualified for the WTF.
But men's pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik need to at least reach the semi-finals in the ongoing China Masters to book their WTF spot.