French Open: Johannesen Downs Lee Zii Jia
Rising prospect Magnus Johannesen achieved one of his biggest results yet in his young career with a first round takedown of Lee Zii Jia at the YONEX French Open 2024.
· DEV SUKUMAR
There were other upsets on the day, with men’s singles sixth seed Kodai Naraoka, women’s singles fifth seed Carolina Marin and men’s doubles greats Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan crashing out.
Johannessen’s win stood out, for the world No.33 is in only his second year at the elite level, and capitalised on his chances against a patchy Lee, closing out the match 21-15 21-19 in 41 minutes. The Malaysian made a belated charge as he narrowed down a 7-17 deficit to come to within one point, but couldn’t force a third game. It was a reversal of the result from a year ago, when Lee had a comfortable 21-11 21-5 win over Johannesen at the German Open.
“I was maybe not very patient and made lot of unforced errors,” said the Malaysian. “His defensive shots made me lose confidence. Through the whole match I didn’t have any control.