PETALING JAYA: Men’s singles shuttler Leong Jun Hao believes he is in the iron-sharpens-iron stage of his career as he pushes for a breakthrough at the highest level.
The 26-year-old went down 11-21, 21-19, 8-21 to world No. 4 and home favourite Li Shifeng in the China Masters second round in Shenzhen on Thursday.
It was Jun Hao’s second consecutive three-game loss to Shifeng, having also fallen to the 2022 Asian Games and 2023 All-England champion in the Hong Kong Open quarter-finals a week earlier.
The Chinese ace went on to capture the title in Kowloon.
He showed signs of improvement when he beat the likes of Lee Zii Jia and Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting in the first rounds in Hong Kong and China respectively.
He did not go all the way to win the titles but Jun Hao insists he has picked up valuable lessons from facing big names and is determined to turn his defeats into future success.
“I feel my performance against Shifeng was okay. In the second game, he played well towards the end and managed to catch up, which gave him the momentum in the third game,” said Jun Hao.
“In these two tournaments, I feel I have gained in maturity. I learned a lot in terms of tactics.
“Moving forward, I hope to take the positives from my performances and do better in my next tournaments.”
Jun Hao has struggled for consistency this year and only made it as far as the quarter-finals twice in the Hong Kong tourney and Singapore Open in June.
The 2017 Asian Junior champion, though, is closer to finally breaking into the world’s top 20 after his encouraging performances lately.
Jun Hao will next compete in the Korean Open which starts on Tuesday in Suwon.
He has a tricky opening match against Indonesia’s world No. 19 Alwi Farhan.
Meanwhile, the other Malaysians in the fray are Justin Hoh and qualifier Teh Jin Hong.
