Eain Yow taking his time to rediscover form

PETALING JAYA: Slow and steady wins the race.

It’s a mantra that national No. 2 squash player Ng Eain Yow (pic) is subscribing to these days.

The 20-year-old made rapid progress on the Professional Squash Association (PSA) Tour since making the transition from junior to senior level but his form has suffered a dip in the last two months.

His debut at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games last April ended with disappointment as he was knocked out in the first round in the singles event due to cramps. He recovered to reach the men’s doubles quarter-finals with Mohd Syafiq Kamal.

Eain Yow admitted his form had been below par in April and May but he had been working hard to recapture his old form – in his own pace.

And there have been some positive signs when he reached the quarter-finals in the Sporta Guatemala XI Torneo Internacional last month.

Yhe unseeded Eain Yow knocked out seventh seed New Zealand’s Campbell Grayson 3-1 before losing to Peruvian third seed Diego Elias 3-0 at the Santa Catarina Pinula.

The world No. 47 said he had been talking to head coach Peter Genever to identify his weaknesses and improve on them.

“We agreed that my fundamentals of the game are not as sharp as before. Now, I’m just focused on ironing out these problems,” said the former world junior champion.

“My competitors from the youth level are going up the ranking fast but I have to accept that each player has a different path to reach the top. I have big ambitions to go up the world ranking but it takes time.”

Eain Yow’s next assignments are the National Squash Championship from July 4-8, the Malaysian Open from July 17-22 and the Indonesia Asian Games from Aug 18-Sept 2.

The Kuala Lumpur lad hoped his hard work in training will pay dividends.

“We’ve a number of major tournaments coming up and I’ve big hopes of doing well in these tournaments but I’m not going to put unnecessary pressure on myself. I want to enjoy myself and execute what I’ve picked up in training,” he added.