New experience for Daren as he juggles dual role

PETALING JAYA: Liew Daren is set to juggle two roles as a player and a coach at the Malaysian Open but he is fine with it.

The world No. 31 Daren will guide fellow independent men’s singles shuttler and world No. 2 Lee Zii Jia and also compete as a player in the tournament starting tomorrow at Axiata Arena.

Zii Jia is currently without a coach after parting ways with Indonesian Indra Wijaya last November.

And Daren, who was promoted to the main draw from the reserve list after Japan’s Kento Momota pulled out, will step in and take his place in the coaching bench behind Zii Jia.

“It will be a new experience for me to be a player and coach in the same tournament,” said Daren.

“For now, the plan is for me to follow Zii Jia and guide him in his next few tournaments as well. I hope I can help Zii Jia do well. I also hope our matches don’t clash,” said Daren.

Daren is not looking beyond his first-round match against world No. 23 Toma Junior of France.

“I’m not setting any targets for myself as this tournament is a Super 1000 event and will be very tough. I just want to focus on the first round against Toma,” said Daren.

The Malaysian holds the advantage against the Frenchman as he has come out on top in their past two encounters in the 2022 All-England and 2019 Swiss Open.

If Daren makes it three wins in a row, he will most likely be up against top seed and hot favourite Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the second round.

Meanwhile, Zii Jia faces a tough opening match against Japan’s rising star and world No. 7 Kodai Naraoka.

The former is bracing himself for an intense match with long rallies.

“If you see Kodai’s past matches, he prefers to play long rallies. Many of his matches lasted beyond one hour, so I’m preparing myself for a high-intensity battle,” said Zii Jia.

“I also need to stay patient as his defence is very good.”