Valuable sessions: Ng Tze Yong has been sparring with former great and 12-time winner Datuk Lee Chong Wei at the Academy Badminton Malaysia.
PETALING JAYA: Men’s singles shuttler Ng Tze Yong has left no stone unturned in his bid to be in the best possible shape for the Malaysian Open, starting on Tuesday at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.
Tze Yong has been having sparring sessions with former great and 12-time winner Datuk Lee Chong Wei at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) for a few days in the lead up to the season opening home event.
The 23-year-old has also been working with Chong Wei’s former physical trainer Mohd Roesdi Abdul Ghani for the past two months to improve his fitness and strength.
He is seen as one of the candidates to bring back the home title last won by Chong Wei at the 2018 edition.
“I trained with Datuk Lee for a few days. I’ve learned a lot from him in terms of skills and he also gave me good advice,” said Tze Yong at a pre-tournament press conference in Bukit Kiara yesterday.
Tze Yong did not elaborate when asked on what were the advice given but the former must have asked him to play with more confidence.
He can only play with confidence if he is fit enough to toy around with his opponent, just like how Chong Wei used to do.
And Chong Wei’s former trainer Roesdi is just doing that, pushing Tze Yong to strengthen his leg muscles.
“I have been working with Roesdi on a more specific physical training programme. The intense physical training sessions have really benefited me as I didn’t have a lot of time to work on my fitness before this due to tournament commitments,” added Tze Yong.
Tze Yong is now out to translate his hard work into good results, starting from the home tourney.
“I’m not too young any more and I won’t get these types of opportunities often, so I need to make the most of it,” said Tze Yong, who will turn 24 in May.
Although world No. 15 Tze Yong had achieved several breakthroughs in World Tour competitions last year, most notably finishing runners-up in the Arctic Open in Finland in October, he had struggled at times with maintaining his fitness.
Right after the final of the Arctic tourney, he lost in the opening round of the Denmark Open in Odense and had admitted that he felt tired and not used to playing until the latter rounds in back-to-back tourneys.
In the home Open, Tze Yong has a tricky opening match against world No. 23 Koki Watanabe in the first round.
The former is seeking revenge after losing to Watanabe in the Japan Open last year.
The road only gets tougher for Tze Yong from there on as a win will see him face either India’s world No. 8 H.S. Prannoy or Denmark’s world No. 9 Anders Antonsen in the second round.
