PETALING JAYA: Shuttler Ng Tze Yong can get tips from Jonatan Christie (pic) of Indonesia who had overcome a confidence crisis to win the French Open in Rennes on Sunday.
Tze Yong lost in the semi-finals to Li Shifeng of China in the same tournament, mainly due to nervousness, which often stems from lack of confidence.
It was Tze Yong’s fifth straight defeat to the newly crowned Asian Games champion Shifeng and all resulted in straight-game losses.
In contrast, Jonatan put a stop to his first round defeat in the Denmark Open (to Chou Tien-chen of Taiwan) to go all the way to the French Open title on Sunday.
Shifeng was on a high after his Asiad success but Jonatan didn’t want to miss out on a Badminton World Federation (BWF) tour title by coming back from a game down to beat the China ace 16-21, 21-15, 21-14 in 80 minutes.
“Winning gold at the Asian Games sent his confidence crazy high. Shifeng was very difficult to play,” claimed Jonatan after the final.
“I’ve been working on my confidence. When you have more confidence in your game, you can play more aggressively and keep to your strategy.”
This is what Tze Yong may have missed against Shifeng as past record and the latter’s supreme confidence may have shaken the Malaysian well before the semi-final clash and it resulted in another tame defeat.
Tze Yong, by his admission, had stated that he was nervous against Shifeng and was desperate for easy points and started making errors.
However, world No. 18 Tze Yong can make amends at the Hylo Open where no top 10 players will be competing in the super 300 event and the Malaysian may use the opportunity to secure his first tour title.
The tournament begins in Saarbrucken, Germany today where world No. 14 Tien-chen and No. 16 Lee Cheuk-yiu of Hong Kong are the top two seeds.
Having beaten both players on previous occasion, Tze Yong just needs to approach the tournament with more confidence to end his search for a tour title.
Tze Yong will play a qualifier in the first round and his first test is expected against Toma Junior Popov of France in an expected last eight clash.
Meanwhile, mixed doubles pairs Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie and Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing will have to make a strong impact in the tournament to put their Olympic qualification race back on track.
The Olympic race is so stiff that Hylo Open will see world No. 6 Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin of China and world No. 8 Thom Gicquel-Delphine Delrue of France battling for honours in Germany.
Soon Huat-Shevon, who play qualifiers in the first round, may be up against French Open runners-up Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet of Hong Kong in the second round.
Kian Meng-Pei Jing should clear the first round against qualifiers but face some danger against Durch pair Robin Tabeling-Selena Piek in the second.
