KUALA LUMPUR: Lee Zii Jia is looking forward to do battle against the planet's top eight players again at the World Tour Finals (WTF) in Hangzhou on Dec 11-15 after missing it in the last two years.
It hasn't been an easy passage for the world No. 8 shuttler this time either as he needed to make a late scramble to finish seventh in the men's singles world tour rankings to make the cut.
The top seven players and the Paris Olympics champions in the respective categories will battle it out at the lucrative US$2.5 million (RM11.20 million) WTF in Hangzhou on Dec 11-15.
Zii Jia, sixth in the World Tour rankings, will vie with the top five qualifiers -Anders Antonsen of Denmark, Shi Yu Qi of China, Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan, Kodai Naraoka of Japan and Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn, as well as seventh-placed Jonatan Christie of Indonesian and Danish Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen.
Axelsen was only 14th in the World Tour rankings but as the Paris Olympics gold medallist, he gets an automatic ticket.
Although Zii Jia struggled to regain his form since winning bronze at the Paris Olympics, he never gave up his fight for a WTF spot and confirmed his ticket after reaching the quarter-finals of the China Masters last week.
"I'm excited to be competing at the WTF again after two years. I am looking forward to the tournament and hopefully, I can get a good result in Hangzhou," said Zii Jia who will be playing in his third WTF after having qualified in 2020 and 2021.