PETALING JAYA: Shuttler Leong Jun Hao’s (pic) encouraging performance in the Singapore Open has impressed national coaching director Rexy Mainaky.
Jun Hao stunned Indonesia’s two-time defending champion and world No. 7 Anthony Ginting 21-14, 10-21, 21-8 to reach the men’s singles quarter-finals in his first appearance in the World Tour Super 750 competition before going down 12-21, 11-21 to Denmark’s world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen.
Despite the defeat to Axelsen, the world No. 36 can still hold his head high after toppling Anthony and gaining valuable experience from his outing.
Jun Hao is expected to move up the rankings after this and Rexy is pleased with his showing in the tournament.
“Jun Hao is one of our players who performed well in this tournament,” said Rexy.
“The others who did well are men’s doubles pairs Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani and Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun.”
Jun Hao has been improving steadily since being given the responsibility of playing in the second singles behind world No. 9 independent player Lee Zii Jia in the Thomas Cup Finals in Chengdu last month in the absence of the injured Ng Tze Yong.
The 24-year-old took down Hong Kong’s world No. 22 Angus Ng Ka Long and Japan’s world No. 20 Koki Watanabe to help Malaysia win a bronze medal.
Jun Hao also gave reigning world champion and home favourite Kunlavut Vitidsarn a huge scare before going down fighting 22-20, 14-21, 21-23 in the second round of the Thailand Open just after the team meet.
His persistence was finally rewarded with a big win over Anthony.
Jun Hao’s improvement comes at the right time for the national singles department as world No. 18 Tze Yong is still struggling to fully recover from a back issue.
The former might next get to compete in the Indonesian Open in Jakarta, which starts on Tuesday where he is listed as first reserve.
Meanwhile, Sze Fei-Izzuddin also caught the eye after pulling off an impressive 21-13, 21-16 win over China’s world No. 8 Liu Yuchen-Ou Xuanyi to reach the last eight in Singapore.
The world No. 14 pair then narrowly lost out 16-21, 21-9, 17-21 to another Chinese pair, world No. 10 He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu but showed great fighting spirit in a high intensity clash and can be satisfied with their overall performance.
World No. 20 Wei Chong-Kai Wun also gave Denmark’s Malaysian Masters champions Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen a run for their money and were unlucky to lose 10-21, 22-20, 19-21 in the second round.
Both Sze Fei-Izzuddin and Wei Chong-Kai Wun will next play in the Indonesian tourney where they have been drawn against Canada’s Adam Dong-Nyl Yakura and Indian top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty respectively in the first round.
