PETALING JAYA: The back-up shuttlers continued to make strides in the world rankings and this bodes well for the country’s badminton.
Men’s singles player Justin Hoh (pic), Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi (men’s doubles), Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin (mixed doubles) and Teoh Mei Xing-Go Pei Kee (women’s doubles) all moved up in the latest rankings.
Justin equalled his career best ranking when he rose two spots to No. 48 after making it to the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Super 100 recently.
The 20-year-old last broke into the top 50 in May last year but his progress was cruelly curtailed by an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.
Justin was also plagued by knee and leg issues after taking eight months to recover from his ACL injury but has returned to full fitness and is steadily climbing up the rankings again.
The youngster dropped as low as No. 233 in the world after his setbacks but has shown great determination and fighting spirit to return to where he was before his injuries last year.
Justin captured the lower tier Slovenia Open and Saipan International titles and finished runners-up in the Northern Marianas Open.
His climb in rankings enabled him to make his World Tour Super 500 debut in the Hong Kong Open last month where he gave Denmark’s world No. 29 Rasmus Gemke a huge scare before losing in three close games in the first round.
Justin also made it into the last eight of the Super 300 Taiwan Open just before the Hong Kong tourney.
He is now the national No. 3 behind world No. 7 Lee Zii Jia and world No. 31 Leong Jun Hao and remains on the right track to break into the world’s top 32 and qualify for bigger tournaments.
Justin will look to continue his progress when he competes next in the Korean Masters from Nov 5-10.
Meanwhile, Roy King-Arif (No. 26), Pang Ron-Su Yin (No. 24) and Mei Xing-Pei Kee (No. 85) all reached their career best rankings together.
Roy King-Arif and Pang Ron-Su Yin have only started competing in Super 750 and 1000 competitions this year and have shown good promise while Mei Xing-Pei Kee moved up 27 spots after capturing their maiden title together in the Malaysia Super 100 tourney.
Roy King-Arif and Pang Ron-Su Yin have a good opportunity to make their debuts in the Malaysian Open from Jan 7-12 in Bukit Jalil next year if they maintain their positions in the world’s top 32.
The progress of the back-up players widens Malaysia’s options and lightens the burden on the national No. 1 players like Zii Jia, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik (men’s doubles) and Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei (mixed doubles).
