PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s No. 1 men’s singles shuttler Leong Jun Hao has been reminded that his performances on court must match his rising world ranking.
Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) performance committee chairman Datuk Seri Lee Chong Wei was unimpressed despite the 26-year-old Jun Hao climbing three spots to a career high world No. 23.
Chong Wei said the ranking does not truly reflect Jun Hao’s performances and urged the shuttler to improve.
“He has played in many tournaments and naturally his ranking will go up. He competed in the All-England recently and still collected a lot of ranking points despite exiting early,” said Chong Wei.
“Ranking is just a number. What matters is how you perform. Look at the South Korean pair (Kim Wan-ho-Seo Seung-jae). They played and used the ranking points from the eight tournaments they entered to become the world No. 1 pair, because they won all of them.
“For Jun Hao, let’s say he played in 15 tournaments and exited early in seven of them. I am not saying rankings are not important, but the focus should be more on performances and match results,” said Chong Wei.
Chong Wei’s disappointment was also heightened by Jun Hao’s loss in the second round of the All-England last week to Japan’s Koki Watanabe, an opponent he had beaten before.
He advised Jun Hao to address his weaknesses if he wants to live up to his reputation as the country’s top men’s singles player.
“Even before he went to the All-England, I already felt it would be difficult for him to reach the quarter-finals unless he improved his stamina and focus on court. Otherwise it will be very tough,” he added.
Jun Hao’s next assignment will be the Asian Championships in Ningbo, China from April 7-12.
He will then travel with the national squad to Denmark for a centralised training camp ahead of the Thomas-Uber Cup Finals in Horsens, Denmark, from April 24-May 3.
