PETALING JAYA: Malaysia No. 1 men’s singles Leong Jun Hao has described his outing in the Thomas Cup Finals in Horsens, Denmark as the lowest point of his career since suffering a back injury eight years ago.
Jun Hao, who had previously thrived in team competitions and was regarded as a team event specialist, was unable to live up to expectations this time and failed to win a single point.
He suffered a shock defeat to world No. 60 Joakim Oldorff (Finland) and went down to world No. 9 Kodai Naraoka (Japan), even though he had four previous wins over him.
His best showing came against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi in the quarter finals, where he took a game off his opponent.
China went on to seal a 3-0 win after Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Justin Hoh also lost their matches.
“Personally, I feel my performance this time was not good enough. The pressure is definitely there, but maybe my own performance was also lacking this time,” said Jun Hao.
“Yes, maybe you can say that (it’s the biggest setback in my career). But I will try my best moving forward.”
Jun Hao knows he is under scrutiny after his struggles in Horsens, but he is not dwelling on it.
He also does not want to think too much about the current sentiment, including whether he could face being dropped from the national squad following the disappointing outing in the Thomas Cup.
“If I say I didn’t see it (social media comments), that wouldn’t be true. People will say what they want.
“But no matter what, I have to take it in. The road ahead is still long, there are more tournaments to come,” he added.
