Work it: One of Ng Tze Yong’s weaknesses is his inability to adapt to his opponents’ different playing styles.
PETALING JAYA: Adapting to different opponents’ playing styles is the next step in shuttler Ng Tze Yong’s development.
National men’s singles coach Hendrawan believes that it’s crucial for Tze Yong to learn to vary his game to beat top players consistently.
“To reach the top, you need to become a complete player and Tze Yong is not there yet,” said Hendrawan.
“One of his weaknesses is that he struggles against players with different characteristics or style of play.
“We have noticed this in training as well.
“It’s not that he doesn’t want to fight hard in certain matches but he doesn’t have the capacity (to beat all the top players) yet.
“We will focus more on helping him improve this.”
World No. 26 Tze Yong had reached the quarter-finals of his last three tournaments – the Thailand Masters, All-England and Swiss Open.
The 22-year-old’s standout performance came in his debut All-England in Birmingham where he stunned Denmark’s world No. 1 and defending champion Viktor Axelsen 21-15, 9-21, 23-21 in the second round.
The monumental effort to take down Axelsen though, seemed to take its toll as Tze Yong fell 11-21, 11-21 to China’s world No. 11 and eventual champion Li Shifeng in the last eight.
“Tze Yong still needs to work on his fitness and strength,” said Hendrawan.
“We also can’t expect him to suddenly become a world-beater just because he managed to beat Axelsen.
“Axelsen himself lost in the semi-finals of the Swiss Open (to Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen).
“His results overall have not been outstanding but he is progressing step by step, so this is good.”
Looking forward, Hendrawan believed that the youngster will be fit for his next assignment – the Asian Championships in Dubai from April 25-30 – after he retired from his last eight match against Tien-chen in the Swiss Open while trailing 11-21, 0-2.
“He just returned from Basel on Sunday night and we have given him two days to rest,” said Hendrawan.
“We will assess his condition before giving him the green light to return to training. There is still a month to go for the Asian meet, so he should be fine to compete.”
