PETALING JAYA: Men’s singles shuttler Ng Tze Yong (pic) will have to be at his sharpest to prevail in two back-to-back first-round openers against Japan’s Koki Watanabe at the Malaysian and Indian Opens.
Tze Yong is down to face Watanabe in the home tourney from Jan 9-14 before clashing again in New Delhi from Jan 16-21.
World No. 23 Watanabe had beaten the Malaysian in the Japan Open in July.
Should Tze Yong (No. 15) overcome Watanabe in India, he will face All England and Asian Games gold medallist Li Shifeng of China in the second round.
The quarter of the draw is so tough that the winner of that match would most likely meet either world No. 6 Shi Yuqi of China or his compatriot Weng Hongyang, in the quarter-finals.
As for Lee Zii Jia, he avoided an early threat in the Indian Open where he will play Canadian Brian Yang before meeting either Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong or Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in the second round.
It was a better draw for the independent shuttler, who has a tougher first-round clash against Lu Guangzu of China in his opening round at the Malaysian Open.
In the men’s doubles, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik face a tricky first-round match against the inconsistent Akira Koga-Taichi Saito of Japan, who are capable of ending the Malaysians’ run.
Koga-Saito have beaten Aaron-Wooi Yik four times in their last seven meeting and the latter have to play better if they want to replicate their run last year where they reached the final.
The other Malaysian pairs face tough early-round clashes.
Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) pairs Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun have an uphill task as they will play former world No. 1 Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto of Indonesia in the first round.
Another BAM pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani have an easy first-round encounter against Canada’s Dong Adam-Nyl Yakura in the first round before a challenging second-round match against China’s Liu Yuchen-Ou Xuanyi.
Independent pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi take on former world champions Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi of Japan in their opening match.
