Soo has come of age, says junior coach Kejian

PETALING JAYA: National junior singles coach Zhou Kejian believes that Soo Teck Zhi has matured into a much better player over the past one year.

The 18-year-old Teck Zhi, who has trained under Bukit Jalil Sports School singles chief coach Kejian for the past 2½ years, stepped up his game to beat South Korea’s Jeon Hyuk-jin 21-17, 13-21, 21-15 to win the boys’ singles title in the Asian Junior Championships in Kota Kinabalu

“Teck Zhi and (Soong) Joo Ven are the two boys who have showed more potential compared to the others in the squad and we have always kept a close eye on them,” said Kejian.

“Joo Ven has always been a stable player. Teck Zhi, however, is quite flashy and is proned to making mistakes. And Teck Zhi also tends to run around the court clueless at times.

“But now he has dropped the habit of solely relying on his physical strength and knows when to peak in matches.

“In short, he has matured in terms of understanding the game and is adept at changing the pace to his advantage.

“In today’s final, Teck Zhi started at a very fast pace and gave his opponent no time to catch his breath.

“Although he lost focus in the second game, he understood well enough to conserve his energy before turning it around in the decider.

“I believe Teck Zhi can go far because he is still young. There is still room for him to improve.

“But for now, the focus will shift to the World Junior Championships when we return to KL,” added Kejian.

The World Juniors will be held from Oct 23-Nov 3 in Bangkok.