PETALING JAYA: National men’s singles shuttler Ng Tze Yong (pic) will skip the German Open from March 7-12 in Mulheim to spend more time in training ahead of a hectic schedule.
Tze Yong did not have a long period to train in January as he competed in four back-to-back tournaments – the Malaysian Open, Indian Open, Indonesian Masters and Thailand Masters.
The 22-year-old will now focus on improving his game ahead of another busy schedule in March where he is set to play in the prestigious All-England (March 14-19) in Birmingham and Swiss Open (March 21-26) in Basel.
“We have planned specifically for Tze Yong to have more time in training before the All-England and Swiss Open,” said Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) high performance director Dr Tim Jones.
“For now, we have yet to confirm whether he will go on to compete in the Spain Masters (March 28-April 2) or Orleans Masters (April 4-9) after that but these are options for him.
Jones believes that he and the coaches in the BAM have a much better understanding of the areas where the world No. 28 shuttler needs to improve on to match the world’s top players after his outings last month.
The youngster’s best result in the four tournaments was reaching the last eight in the Thailand Masters.
“He mostly managed to meet our expectations but wasn’t quite able to translate that into better results when in good positions against players in the world’s top 10 to 15.
“He will definitely learn and improve from these experiences and we now have a much better idea of his needs at this higher level of competition before heading to Europe.
“We are positive about his development but we will of course be trying to make improvements as fast as possible as Olympic qualification will come around soon and we want him to be as competitive as possible,” said Jones.
The one year qualification period for the 2024 Paris Olympics will begin in May.
Tze Yong needs to break into the top 16 by the end of the qualifying period to make the cut.
On areas where he needs to improve on, Jones said: “He needs to work on his ability to convert good positions into victories more often.
“When it comes to the physical side, he needs to improve his smash and general court efficiency to compete against the speed and intensity of the top players.
“Ultimately, everyone wants high levels of consistency at the top level World Tour tournaments but this takes time and a lot of hard work.
“I feel that the team around him is good for him, and we are in close discussions with him too on the direction of the programme,
“He’s a clever player and wants input, which is great to see.”
