Jonatan Christie lost 17-21, 21-23 to Lee Zii Jia in the final of the 2022 Badminton Asia Championship (BAC) at Muntinlupa Sports Complex, Manila, Sunday (1/5).
Jonathan was able to give fierce resistance in the first game. Jonathan, who is the fourth seed at BAC 2022, took turns to lead with Lee Zii Jia who was the third seed.
Lee Zii Jia had an 11-9 lead at the interval of the first game. After being left behind for a long time, Jonathan was finally able to equalize in position 13-13.
But after that Lee Zii Jia was able to stay away until 13-19. Jonathan looks difficult to face the men’s singles game from Malaysia. Lee Zii Jia finally won 21-17 in the first game.
Jonathan had started the second game quickly and had a 3-0 lead. But Lee Zii Jia showed great resistance. The two players took turns leading the match.
Jonathan made several mistakes in the second game. One of them was when he wasted two opportunities to take the lead at the interval by trailing 10-11 even though he was 10-9 ahead.
The Indonesian men’s singles again made mistakes at important moments. Including when he let Lee Zii Jia win three consecutive points to go to 16-19 after being equally strong 16-16.
Interestingly Lee Zii Jia also then made three mistakes to make it level at 19-19. Jojo is next in a game point position of 20-19 after winning an incredible rally.
But Jonathan made a mistake after his serve flick came out. The score was the same as a 20-20 draw. Jojo then returned to get game points 21-20, but Lee Zii Jia managed to turn things around to 23-21 after Jonathan’s return came out.
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