NEW ZEALAND’S world No. 2 Paul Coll is the player everyone wants to avoid and it is no different for top Malaysian player Ng Eain Yow, who bids to reach the medal rounds of the Commonwealth Games squash.
Coll, the British Open champion, is the red-hot favourite and is bent on lifting the individual title in Birmingham after losing to veteran James Wilstrop of England in 2018 Gold Coast.
Ng Eain Yow (picture) in action against Ivan Yuen in the men’s final of 37th National Squash Championships in National Squash Centre, Bukit Jalil yesterday. - IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
Eain Yow is at the bottom half of the draw, thus avoiding the Kiwi superstar in the early rounds but his battle is far from over.
That was only half of his wish fulfilled as Eain Yow is likely to face second seed Joel Makin of Wales in the last eight and that’s a tough task, although not as daunting as facing Coll.
Fifth-seeded Eain Yow received a bye in the first round and is expected to face an easy second round clash against either Jason-Ray Khalil of Guyana or Paul Kadoma of Uganda.
This will be followed by a likely third round clash against the winners of the match between Nick Sachvie of Canada and New Zealand’s Lwamba Chilese.
Everything looks set for a quarter-final clash against Makin and Eain Yow needs to come up with something special to outplay the second seed.
“The draw is alright as we are not up against any major player until the later rounds. The early matches favour our players but we just have to be cautious and take it one match at a time before looking at the big ones,” said team manager Major (rtd) S. Maniam.
“The big one for Yow, should he get that far, would be Makin. Yow has lost to him a couple of times.
“But Yow is charged up and is looking forward to a good battle this time.”
Their last meeting was at the Optasia Championships in London in March where Makin won in four games.
There will be plenty of support for Makin who has been residing in Birmingham but the Bristol-based Eain Yow could make things difficult for the Welshman if he utilises his underdog tag well.
Ivan Yuen, the joint ninth seed, has an outside chance of reaching the quarter-finals if he can overcome eighth seed Greg Lobban of Scotland in the last 16.
However, Syafiq Kamal faces a herculean task as he is set to take on Coll in the last-16 stage.
