Losing at the worlds still bothers me, says Malaysian ace Lee Chong Wei
The former world No 1 is safely through to the second round at the Hong Kong Open but holds bad memories of his poor campaign in Glasgow in August
Former world number one Lee Chong Wei says he’s still feeling the pain of his disastrous World Championships campaign this year in Glasgow, where he was dumped out in the first round.
The Malaysian ace recorded his worst-ever result at the worlds in the Glasgow tournament in August after losing to Brice Leverdez of France in his opener. Lee was opening up on his disappointment of not being able to win a badminton “major” yet again after playing second fiddle to his great rival, Lin Dan, of China in recent years.
So far Lee has failed to lift a world title and the Olympic gold medal has proved beyond him, winning three silvers on the trot at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics.
“I still find it hard to overcome this disappointment [at the worlds],” said Lee, who negotiated his first-round match successfully at the Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open on Wednesday.
Lee showed flashes of brilliance again in thrashing China’s Tian Houwei 21-9, 21-7 but it hasn’t been a good year for the 35-year-old Malaysian, who suffered a surprise quarter-final defeat to Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka-long at last week’s China Open in Shanghai among other notable losses in 2017.