National No. 2 Eain Yow reaping fruits of his hard labour

PETALING JAYA: What a turnaround it has been for national squash player Ng Eain Yow over the space of 12 months.

A year ago, Eain Yow, fresh from winning the 2016 World Junior Championships title, was brought back to reality with a shocking third-round exit at the British Junior Open.

That defeat ended Eain Yow’s hopes of adding the Under-19 title to his Under-13, Under-15 and Under-17 collection and he struggled for form in the first half of the season.

The 19-year-old has, however, started this year on a high, climbing to a career-high No. 46 in the world on the back of a stellar second half of the year.

Eain Yow – who also bagged two gold medals at the KL SEA Games – now finds himself as the national No. 2, overtaking Ivan Yuen, who dropped to No. 48.

He has closed the gap on national No. 1 Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan, who is ranked No. 43.

The KL boy is keeping his feet firmly on the ground this time as he eyes another productive season.

“I am pleased with my rankings but not too much. It just means that I’ve been playing well and I’m happy with that,” said Eain Yow.

“There was a lot of work I put in last year especially since I had such a tough first half of the year.

“I think I’ve certainly grown a lot in my first year as a full professional. I can focus on my squash a lot more and I also have time to learn more about sports science which helps my performance.

“I’m glad that the hard work is now showing results but this is really just the start for me. I’m really motivated to keep working harder.

“Personally, I want to make my mark in singles this year, hopefully for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games this year.

“Those are my big targets although I’m also looking to focus more on bigger events such as the World Series and continue climbing the rankings.”

Eain Yow is one of three players – the others being Nafiizwan and Ivan – selected for singles duty at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April.

His first assignment of the year is the Indian Open in Mumbai from Feb 8-11.