PETALING JAYA: Men’s singles shuttler Leong Jun Hao needs to return to his aggressive style of play to end his poor run in tournaments lately.
Jun Hao was enjoying his best form before the Paris Olympics in August when he toppled the likes of Indonesia’s world No. 4 Jonatan Christie, world No. 10 Anthony Ginting and Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen (No. 9) en route to reaching back-to-back quarter-finals in the Indonesian and Singapore Opens.
The 25-year-old’s form though dipped when the World Tour season resumed after the Olympics as he suffered early round exits in all six of his individual tournaments including the back-to-back Arctic and Denmark Opens earlier this month.
Men’s singles coach K. Yogendran, who was re-appointed to the role in the beginning of this month after a stint in the women’s singles, believes that Jun Hao’s poor form was due to him adopting a defensive approach.
“Jun Hao’s strength is his attacking game which helped him upset top players like Jonatan and Anthony earlier,” said Yogendran.
“These wins showed that he knows what he needs to do to win but lately his performance has not been up to the mark. This is because he has been focusing too much on his weakness which is his defence.
“In training, he has been trying to improve his weakness but in doing so, he has forgotten to maintain his strength.
“Thus, in tournaments, he has adopted a defensive approach which is the wrong strategy for him. This has played right into his opponents’ hands.
“He needs to be aggressive again to return to his old form. I’ve discussed with him and he understands what he needs to do,” added Yogendran.
Yogendran also explained that the short time in training and the changes in the coaching structure lately are not ideal as he needs more time to implement his own training programme.
“The training period is too short now and there are many tournaments, so it’s not easy to make many changes in the training programme,” said Yogendran.
“We are trying to change Jun Hao’s game as much as we can in the short time we have. We are also trying to improve his footwork and shots.”
Jun Hao reached a career high No. 27 in July but has dropped to No. 31 due to his disappointing form.
He still has an opportunity to return to his best before the end of this year when he competes in the back-to-back Japan Masters (Nov 12-17) and China Masters (Nov 19-24).
