Sad end: Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin Rumsani lost 9-21, 21-23 to Indonesians Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto.
PETALING JAYA: Speed and experience.
These are the aspects that shuttler Ng Tze Yong believes he still needs to work on to close the gap with the world’s top players.
Yesterday, he went toe-to-toe with 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore before narrowly losing 20-22, 19-21 in the men’s singles quarter-finals of the Korean Open at the Jinnam Stadium in Yeosu.
World No. 23 Tze Yong had stunned world No. 8 Kean Yew en route to winning silver in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in August last year and was not too far away from another upset win.
The former saved two game points in the opener when he was behind 18-20 but the Singaporean stayed cool to close out the game.
It was neck-to-neck in the second too before Kean Yew again snatched two points at 19-19 to win the match.
“I gave my very best but could not get the win,” said Tze Yong.
“I have learned from this match that I’m still a bit behind when it comes to speed and experience and I need to improve on these to go further.”
It was still an encouraging outing for Tze Yong after he had stunned Hong Kong’s world No. 14 Angus Ng Ka Long 21-18, 21-17 a day earlier.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s challenge in the tournament is over after men’s doubles pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani were also shown the exit.
Last week’s US Open champions Sze Fei-Izzuddin went down 9-21, 21-23 to Indonesia’s world No. 1 Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto.
After a poor start, the former recovered and had a good opportunity to take the match to a rubber game after leading 16-10 but allowed Fajar-Rian to close the gap and win narrowly.
“We started slowly but managed to improve in the second game,” said Izzuddin, who was playing in only his second tournament with Sze Fei after both decided to renew their partnership last month.
“But we could not sustain our performance until the end.
“Moving forward, we need to add more variety to our game to help us to win.”
Both Tze Yong and Sze Fei-Izzuddin will turn their attention to the Japan Open in Tokyo next week.
