Lee Zii Jia

Later in March, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Europe, the 2020 German Open (badminton) was cancelled. Zii Jia's next tournament was the 2020 All England Open, which was also be his debut at the tournament because his ranking was previously too low to qualify. He won against Jonatan Christie, who had won in four previous matches. Zii Jia continued this win streak against Lu Guangzu and then the Olympic champion Chen Long. In the semi final match, he lost to Viktor Axelsen. The match lasted for 73 minutes. Further, Lee's performance at the All England Open raised his world ranking to no. 10 on 17 March 2020.

Zii Jia started the 2019 season by competing in the Thailand Masters. He lost in the quarter finals to Brice Leverdez of France in straight games. In the next tournaments, he also finished in the quarter finals in Malaysia Masters, Indonesia Masters, and German Open. Zii Jia later lost in the early stage of Swiss, Malaysia, and Singapore Open's. Zii Jia admitted that he had struggled to cope with financial difficulties, lack of progress and unfairness that affected his performance.

In October 2018, Zii Jia reached the final of the Chinese Taipei Open by defeating the World No. 4 Men's Singles player, Chou Tien-chen in the semifinals. He defeated Riichi Takeshita in the final to win his first BWF World Tour title and second international title overall. In doing so, he became the second Malaysian other than Lee Chong Wei to win a BWF top flight men's singles title since 2013. Zii Jia then reached the final of the Korea Masters but lost to Son Wan-ho.

In February 2017, Zii Jia reached the semifinals of the Thailand Masters, where he lost to Kantaphon Wangcharoen. In September 2017, Zii Jia won his first senior title at the Polish International, against Soong Joo Ven in the final. In November 2017, Zii Jia reached the semifinals of the Bitburger Open.

The BWF World Tour, announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018, is a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, namely the World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300 (part of the HSBC World Tour), and the BWF Tour Super 100.

In November 2016, Zii Jia won a bronze medal in the World Junior Championships after losing to Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo in the semifinals. In the same month, he advanced to the final of India International Series but was defeated by Lakshya Sen.

Lee Zii Jia was first introduced to badminton by his parents at the age of 5. In his earlier years, he studied at Keat Hwa H Primary School in Alor Setar, Kedah. Due to his results in the under 12 competition, he was soon drafted into the Bukit Jalil Sports School. In 2015, he became the junior champion in the Perak and Selangor Badminton Open. These standout performance and wins in the international circuit earned him a place in the Badminton Association of Malaysia.

In August, he finally managed to make it into the semi-finals in the Thailand Open, where he lost to Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei. This was nonetheless an improvement to his being a quarter finalist in New Zealand and Indonesia Open's. Zii Jia qualified to compete in World Championships in Basel, Switzerland, but lost to the World No. 1 Men's Single Player, and the eventual champion Word Campion, Kento Momota of Japan in the quarter finals. In November, he was forced to retire in the second round of the China Open, and decided to withdraw as well from the next tournament in Hong Kong, due suffering from food poisoning and fever. Zii Jia reached world No. 11 in the BWF World ranking on November 12th. In December, he won the men's singles gold medal at the Southeast Asian Games, and also helped the national men's team win the silver medal.

Lee Zii Jia (born 29 March 1998) is a Malaysian badminton player. He was the men's singles gold medalist at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.