PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s men’s singles shuttler Eogene Ewe admitted he needs to improve physically after a painful cramp ended his hopes of reaching the main draw of the Malaysian Masters on Tuesday (May 19).
The 21-year-old looked set for a breakthrough appearance in the Super 500 tournament at the Unifi Arena in Bukit Jalil before going down 18-21, 22-20, 20-22 to China’s Zhu Xuanchen in a gruelling 74-minute qualifying match.
Eogene had started his qualifying run well by coming from behind to take down Denmark’s Ditlev Jaeger Holm 13-21, 22-20, 21-16 in 53 minutes.
With both matches stretched to the rubber set, Eogene was visibly worn out during the final game against Holm, collapsing to his knees on the court due to severe cramping in his left leg.
"I am upset. I’ve tried my best. It was a good game in the morning, but this time, I felt I still had room for improvement, but in the end, I lost," said Eogene.
"So I need to improve on that."
Despite the setback, world No. 78 Eogene believes he has the momentum to progress further and aims to move up the ranks by the end of the year.
He admitted that at the current stage of his career, entering the main draws of big tournaments requires getting through qualifying rounds, which can be quite draining.
"I want to break into the top 64 by the end of the year. But sometimes it can be quite difficult to play in the singles because I have to go through two qualifying matches in a day.
"But I need to work on my skills, variations in my shots from both the front and back and strategies," he said.
Meanwhile, Cheam June Wei also fell short of entering the main draw after he fell 19-21, 17-21 to South Korea’s Yoo Tae-bin in the second qualifying round.
It was the same fate for Lim Ming Hong and Jacky Kok, who fell to China’s Hu Zhean 13-21, 10-21 and Japan’s Minoru Koga 11-21, 23-21, 10-21 in the second qualifying round, respectively.
With no Malaysian men’s singles players making the cut for the main draw through qualifying, only Leong Jun Hao and Justin Hoh will represent the country in the category tomorrow.
