PETALING JAYA: Singles head coach Kenneth Jonassen believes the valuable experience gained by shuttler Justin Hoh (pic) in the Asia Mixed Team Championships is crucial to his development.
World No. 53 Justin was given the nod ahead of world No. 28 Leong Jun Hao in the group match against Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu (No. 21) and he gave a good account of himself before losing 19-21, 16-21.
Despite the defeat, Jonassen feels that the 20-year-old learnt a lot in the match and can use the experience as a foundation to continue his progress.
“It was exactly a match where I had hoped for Justin to play against a top player where you need to understand the quality, the importance of having a lot of variation both on your shot selection but also on your tactical changes,” said Jonassen.
“To get that kind of understanding that if you don’t change and adjust accordingly on a quite regular basis in a match like this, then your opponent will and then it will be difficult for you to kind of catch up to the changes.
“So, for me it was worth a lot for him to get the experience and also for me as a coach to see the match.
“It gives a good foundation to go back to training and develop from the findings from a match like this. This is a match that we will not get in an everyday tournament as Justin still has not got the ranking.
“Of course as coach, I would have liked to see him win the first game. That would have been good. Overall though, he needs to learn that when you play at the highest level, it’s very competitive. If you drop a little bit or allow the opponent to dictate tactical changes, it’s difficult to compete against a top player.”
For now, Justin, who turns 21 in April, rarely gets to compete in tournaments above World Tour Super 300 level.
The youngster has only played in two Super 500 tournaments – the Hong Kong Open last September and Japan Masters in November.
Justin went down in three games in the first round in both tournaments to Denmark’s world No. 29 Rasmus Gemke and fellow Malaysian, world No. 7 Lee Zii Jia respectively.
Justin will next look to do better when he competes in the back-to-back Super 300 German Open (Feb 25-March 2) in Mulheim and Orleans Masters (March 4-9) in France.
