PETALING JAYA: Justin Hoh is reaping the fruits of his persistence and hard work.
The national men’s singles shuttler, who celebrated his 19th birthday yesterday, can look forward to competing in bigger tournaments after working his way up the rankings.
Justin’s consistent showings in smaller tier International Challenge and World Tour Super 100 events has propelled him to a career-high No. 59 in the world rankings.
The youngster has never failed to reach at least the quarter-finals in all his outings since joining the senior squad last November.
Justin had clinched two titles – the Malaysian and Uganda International Challenge titles since – and also finished runner-up in the Iran International Challenge.
Playing in back-to-back tournaments though, has not been easy for Justin as he went down 14-21, 21-23 to Indonesia’s Alwi Farhan in the last eight of the Osaka International Challenge on Friday. The tourney in Osaka was Justin’s third back-to-back outing after the Vietnam International Challenge and China Masters.
He also reached the quarter-finals in Vietnam and semi-finals in China.
On his defeat in Osaka, Justin said: “My opponent played very well. Unfortunately, I couldn’t perform better as I was not at my best physically in my third back-to-back tournament.”
“Overall I’m satisfied with my progress in my past few tournaments. This will be my last International Challenge event as I will be competing in World Tour Super 300 and 500 tournaments after this.”
“I’m really looking forward to playing against higher-ranked players,” said Justin, who has set his sights on breaking into the top 32 in the world. “I need to improve my strength and game plan in matches to move up the ranking. I can improve faster by playing in higher-ranked tournaments.”
Justin will compete in the SEA Games in Cambodia from May 5-17 together with the other singles players – Leong Jun Hao, Ong Ken Yon and Lee Shun Yang.
