Classy Tze Yong turns giantkiller as Malaysia enjoy perfect day
PETALING JAYA: National boys’ singles shuttler Ng Tze Yong has become a giantkiller at the World Junior Championships in Markham, Canada.
The unseeded Tze Yong made heads turn when he reached the boys’ singles quarter-finals by stunning second seed Ikhsan Leonardo Imanuel Rumbay of Indonesia 21-13, 21-5 in the fourth round on Thursday.
Tze Yong was pure class as he made it look effortless against Ikhsan, who was the recent Malaysian and Indian International Junior Open winner.
Ikhsan was Tze Yong’s latest big scalp as the 18-year-old had stunned Asian Junior champion and Youth Olympic Games silver medallist Lakhsya Sen to help Malaysia beat India 3-1 to claim fifth spot in the mixed team event which ended on Saturday.
Tze Yong will take on Kodai Naraoka of Japan in the last eight.
It was the cherry on top of a perfect day for the Malaysian team in Markham, winning all seven matches they played without dropping a single game as they all marched into the last eight.
Tze Yong’s fellow boys’ singles player Aidil Sholeh Ali Sadikin also continued his strong run with a 21-19, 21-13 victory over Japan’s Riku Hatano. He faces Lakhsya next for a place in the semi-finals.
In the girls’ singles, Goh Jin Wei and Eoon Qi Xuan also powered past their opponents in style.
Jin Wei was convincing as she sent Canadian Wendy Zhang packing with a 21-11, 21-10 win and Qi Xuan showed Indonesian Putri Kusuma Wardani the door with a 21-19, 21-10 win.
And after winning in the girls’ doubles, Pearly Tan-Toh Ee Wei also easily won their respective mixed doubles matches with Choong Hon Jian and Chia Wei Jie.
Badminton Association of Malaysia development committee chairman David Wee believes that Tze Yong is one of the most improved players since he saw him play in the Asian Juniors in Jakarta in July.
“The Tze Yong that I saw in Jakarta and now, is different. He plays with more confidence now and we saw that especially in the team event when he defeated Lakhsya Sen,” said David.
“I received a report from Kwan Yoke Meng (national junior coach). I was told that Ikhsan was a bundle of nerves as Tze Yong changed his style of play in the second and played an attacking game all the way. The Indonesian made too many mistakes.”