Malaysian No.1 Lee Zii Jia will play Lei Lan Xi of China in the first round of the TOYOTA Thailand Open 2024.

The sixth seed took the place of Lei’s compatriot Li Shi Feng under the new draw management regulations coming into force this week which says a third seed who withdraws before the end of the team managers’ meeting shall be replaced by anyone seeded fifth to eighth in the same quarter.

Lee, champion in 2022, was initially drawn to play local hope Kantaphon Wangcharoen before Li became one of three men’s singles shuttlers to withdraw from the main draw. Wangcharoen will now need to tackle another Seed Withdrawal Move (SWM) in Lu Guang Zu.

Lee has only faced Lei once; he won the encounter in straight games at the Asia Mixed Team Championships last year.

These are the other withdrawals:

Men’s singles

1. Ygor Coelho
2. Weng Hong Yang

Women’s singles

1. Happy Lo Sin Yan

Men’s doubles

1. He Ji Ting/Ren Xiang Yu
2. Supak Jomkoh/Kittinupong Kedren

Women’s doubles

1. Meilysa Trias Puspitasari/Rachel Allessya Rose
2. Lanny Tria Mayasari/Ribka Sugiarto

Mixed doubles

1. Hoo Pang Ron/Cheng Su Yin

PROMOTIONS:

Men’s singles

1. Misha Zilberman
2. Mads Christophersen
3. Koo Takahashi

Women’s singles

1. Kim Ga Ram

Men’s doubles

1. Choong Hong Jian/Muhammad Haikal
2. Tanadon Punpanich/Wachirawit Sothon

Mixed doubles

1. Oleksii Titov/Yevheniia Kantemyr

Click here to view the updated draw.

TOYOTA Thailand Open 2024 starts tomorrow, with the first qualification match scheduled at 10am Kuala Lumpur time (UTC +8).

Fun fact: Lee won his title two years ago by defeating Li.