KUALA LUMPUR: The country's number one men's singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia paid a heavy price for losing in the early rounds of three major tournaments as his name was missing from the top 10 players in the list released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF), today.

Based on the list released by BWF, Zii Jia who was in 10th spot previously, slipped to 11th spot while China's Li Shi Feng moved into the 10th spot.

Denmark's Viktor Exelsen maintained his position at the top.

Zii Jia is among 15 athletes listed in the Road To Gold (RTG) programme that is aimed at winning the country's first ever gold medal in the Olympics, namely the 2024 Paris Olympics, but Zii Jia's performance in recent tournaments has been disappointing to say the least.

He was shown the exit in the second round of the 2023 Malaysia Masters by Taiwan's Li Chun-Yi who beat him 21-19, 16-21, 21-15, in the month of May.

Subsequently at the Singapore Open last week, the Kedah-born singles ace was booted out in the first round by China's Weng Hong Yang, losing 20-22, 21-16, 19-21.

Today, Zii Jia who competed in the 2023 Indonesia Open, suffered another early exit after going down 17-21, 13-21 in straight sets to India's Lakshya Sen in the first round.

The country's other singles shuttler Ng Tze Yong remained in 21st spot.

Meanwhile, the country's number one men's doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik climbed one spot higher than their previous standing (fourth) to take up third spot in the BWF world ranking list.

The 2022 World Champions have been producing some outstanding performances lately and recently moved into the semifinals of the 2023 Singapore Open but lost to China's China Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang 16-21, 21-15, 17-21, and had to be contended with a bronze medal.

-- BERNAMA