Don’t give up!: Tze Yong can take a leaf out Chong Wei’s book.
PETALING JAYA: The new year looks bleak for men’s singles shuttler Ng Tze Yong.
Not only has the former national No. 2 dropped to the 200th spot in the world, his return to the competitive stage has been further delayed as he has also been withdrawn from the Indian Open from Jan 14-19.
Earlier, he was removed from the Malaysian Open participants list. The home tournament is the season opener from Jan 7-12 at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.
He has been going through light training at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM).
On paper, it looks tough on the 24-year-old Tze Yong to make a strong return in 2025 but former international Kwan Yoke Meng believes the future is in Tze Yong’s hands.
In fact, Yoke Meng thinks Tze Yong can draw inspiration from three-time Olympic Games silver medallists Datuk Lee Chong Wei on pulling himself out of the pit and back into the reckoning.
“It does look tough for Tze Yong as he has been out for almost a year,” said Yoke Meng.
Tze Yong had gone through two operations since the start of the year after suffering from back injury.
Chong Wei.
In fact, at this year’s Malaysian Open in January, he conceded a walkover after trailing 8-12 against Koki Watanabe of Japan.
“It’s hard because he has to start all over again by taking part in smaller tournaments to build his world ranking again, in order to play in the top-tier tournaments,” said Yoke Meng.
“Nothing is impossible though as players can turn their fortunes around if they badly want to. I can think of Chong Wei when he went through his doping incident.
“He was out of the top 100 but came back to the No. 1 spot in the world after serving a ban (eight months).
‘‘It depends on the player, whether he is mentally strong to fight his way up.”
Yoke Meng, however, agreed that the predicament of an injured player was different.
“You can’t force yourself when you are injured as it can aggravate the situation. I totally understand what Tze Yong is going through. And when he returns to the court, there will always be that fear of getting injured again,” said Yoke Meng.
“But if he gets it right, it won’t be too long before he makes his way up. He has already reached a certain standard in his game, and can beat lower ranked players easily.”
Yoke Meng knows Tze Yong too well as the latter was one of his players when he was the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM)’s junior chief coach from 2015-2020 before Datuk Misbun Sidek took over.
“He is a shy person and does not say much but he does the talking on the court. I really hope he will make his way back to the top,” added Yoke Meng.
