Badminton World Championships 2023: Jonatan Christie Fails in Early Round

Indonesian men's singles, Jonatan Christie. (Photo: Ulfa Gusti Utami/VOI)

JAKARTA – Indonesian men's singles, Jonatan Christie, immediately ran aground in the first round of the 2023 World Championships. He lost to Malaysian representative Lee Zii Jia.

The step of the fifth seed was stopped after losing in two straight games 21-13 and 21-15 at the Royal Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark, Monday, August 21, evening of Western Indonesian Time (WIB).

This is Jonathan's fourth successive defeat against the Malaysian representative. In fact, in the four clashes before that, he was recorded as always winning.

In another match, the Indonesian men's doubles representatives, Lanny Tria Mayasari/Ribka Sugiarto, managed to make a comeback against the German pair, Stine Kuespert/Emma Moszczynski.

Lanny/Rebekah lost in the first game 14-21 before recovering in the next two games with wins 22-20 and 21-15 respectively.

This victory makes Lanny/Rebekah have to face a serious test in the second round later. The reason is, they will meet the first seeds Chen Qingchen / Jia Yifan (China).

Chen/Jia themselves qualified for the second round without breaking a sweat because they got a blank draw (bye) in the first round.

Before Lanny/Rebekah, Indonesia had secured two tickets for the second round. Each ticket was from Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo's men's singles and Putri Kusuma Wardani's women's singles.