PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttler Yap Roy King is hoping that 2025 will be a prosperous year for him.
The new year will be special for Roy King as he was born in 2001 which is also the Year of the Snake.
The Johor-born player is out to strike it right this year with partner Wan Arif Wan Junaidi.
“My new year wish is to win many titles with Arif and to break into the world’s top 15 as soon as possible,” said Roy King after a training session at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara yesterday.
“Honestly, I hope every year is my year including 2025 which is also the Year of the Snake. It’s a new year for me and Arif and we are working hard in training to improve our skills ahead of our tournaments. We also want to be more consistent.”
Roy King has been steadily climbing up the rankings with Arif since combining in 2023 and are currently ranked No. 23 in the world.
The pair’s best achievement to date is finishing runners-up in the World Tour Super 300 Spain Masters last year.
Roy King-Arif also won the Nantes International Challenge and National Championships in 2023.
Roy King is out to start 2025 on a positive note when he competes with Arif in the prestigious Malaysian Open from Jan 7-12 in Bukit Jalil.
The duo will be making their maiden appearance in the Super 1000 home event.
“The Malaysian Open is starting next week and we are already feeling the excitement of playing in our home ground,” said Roy King.
“We are currently in the final phase of our preparations. We have been training well and we hope we can get a good result.”
Roy King and Arif will be playing together in only their second Super 1000 competition after making their debuts in the China Open last September.
The pair made it into the second round before going down to fellow Malaysians and eventual champions Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani in China.
Roy King-Arif though performed much better in the Super 500 Malaysian Masters last May where they stunned higher ranked pairs such as Taiwan’s world No. 10 Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan and Denmark’s Rasmus Kjaer-Frederik Sogaard to reach the semi-final.
The duo were the only homesters to make it into the last four in the men’s doubles.
With the backing of the passionate home support, Roy King-Arif are hoping to defy the odds again next week.
