crowd and his solid performance during the second half of the year, he was defeated in the third round by Indonesia's Sony Dwi Kuncoro. Lee criticised the chief coach, Yap Kim Hock for treating him indifferently and putting pressure on him before the world championships. While the chief of Badminton Association of Malaysia, Datuk Nadzmi Mohd Salleh encouraged Lee and the chief coach, Yap Kim Hock to improve their relationship. 2008 Lee kicked off 2008 with success, capturing his fourth Malaysia Open title in five years. However, Lee only captured one other title that year, the Singapore Open, which was the final tournament in his pre-Olympic preparations. Other tournaments he took part in were the Korea Open; the All England Open; the Swiss Open; the Badminton Asia Championships; and Thomas Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia where Lee helped Malaysia advance to the semi-final. In the semi-final he defeated Lin Dan to give Malaysia a 1–0 lead in its clash with defending champion China, but Malaysia eventually lost 2–3 due to the defeat of its first doubles team in the vital final match. In the 2008 Olympic Games, Lee was given a bye in the first round. He cruised to straight game victories over Ronald Susilo in the second round, Kęstutis Navickas in the third round, and Sony Dwi Kuncoro in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals Lee Hyun-il gave him a tough fight, but eventually Lee was able to beat the South Korean and reach the final. However, it was a one-sided final, as Lee was completely outplayed by Lin Dan and salvaged only 20 points, losing 12–21, 8–21. He came second place overall. Lee participated in several tournaments after the Olympic Games without capturing a title. He advanced to the finals of the Japan Open, the Macau Open and the China Open, but lost to Sony Dwi Kuncoro, Taufik Hidayat, and Lin Dan respectively. In the French Open Lee was eliminated in the semi-finals. His coach, Misbun Sidek, cited the pressure of being ranked world number one to explain Lee's recent failure to capture a title. Lee ended his last Super Series tournament of the year, the Hong Kong Open, with a sudden withdrawal due to a knee injury, conceding a walkover to Germany's Marc Zwiebler. His last minute withdrawal led to the Chinese media tagging him as the "weakest world number one". The Chinese media speculated that three factors had