HANGZHOU – As far as reaching the higher echelons of world badminton is concerned, Singapore are “knocking on the door, pushing it open, but not stepping through it yet”.
Singapore Badminton Association technical director Martin Andrew made the analogy after Nge Joo Jie and Johann Prajogo’s 21-7, 21-9 loss to India’s world No. 3s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in Thursday’s men’s doubles quarter-finals ended the Republic’s participation in the Asian Games badminton competition.
Earlier, Yeo Jia Min (women’s singles), Terry Hee and Jessica Tan (mixed doubles), Jason Teh (men’s singles) fell at the round of 16, while Jin Yujia and Crystal Wong (women’s doubles), Loh Kean Hean and Andy Kwek (men’s doubles) and Wong and Kwek (mixed doubles) did not make it past the last 32.
The Republic had also lost to Japan in the men’s team first round but the biggest surprise was 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew’s round-of-32 defeat by Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong, which Andrew described as disappointing.
He added: “We are working quite hard with him on various things. There have been good performances from Kean Yew at the world championships, China Open, Korea Open and Asia Championships, and disappointing ones.
“This is a sport where the difference in the top 20 is so minimal, where you can lose if you are 1 or 2 per cent off. It takes something special to be able to consistently succeed.
“So now we have to reinvent, but he is up for it... Other than his game play, we are trying to get him to be more consistent in his shots, more steady in his state of mind, and more focused so he can go out there and perform.”
Andrew revealed that a sports psychologist has been engaged to work with Kean Yew since August and was with him in Hangzhou to make observations.
The Englishman dismissed online suggestions that national singles coach Kelvin Ho is no longer the right man to take Kean Yew to the next level as “nonsense”.
He said: “The players trust him, and he works incredibly hard. It’s easy for Singaporeans to bash another Singaporean doing his best. I’m a foreigner, but you don’t always have to get in foreign people for the job.”
There is also concern over the form of Commonwealth Games champions Hee and Tan, who have made it to the quarter-finals in just one out of 16 tournaments in 2023.
Andrew said the plan is to send the duo to lower-tier events and a nine-day training stint in Germany to try to rediscover the winning feeling and gather precious Olympic qualification points.
He said: “We want them to have fun doing what they like and get enjoyment out of what they are doing, because it hurts them more than anybody when they are not getting the wins, because of the level they know they can bring to the table.”
There were also some encouraging signs, as Yeo took a game off China’s Olympic champion Chen Yufei, and Teh pushed Indonesia’s world No. 2 Anthony Ginting. But the wait for a first Asiad badminton medal since the 2006 women’s team bronze goes on.
Andrew said: “We have been making strides over the last two years, when Jia Min was our top-ranked player, Kean Yew was still playing lower-tier tournaments in 2021, and Terry and Jessica didn’t even have a world ranking.
“Since then, we have had players breaking into the top 30 in each event, even if we do not quite have the depth now. We are knocking on the door, pushing it open, but not stepping through it yet. Kean Yew has put himself in that position, Jia Min is just starting to step through, but the others are just pushing it open and not yet making the step up.”
As for 19-year-olds Nge and Prajogo, who should break into the top 100 after the Games, it is back to lower-tier events before national service enlistment in 2024, but their Hangzhou stint has whetted their appetite.
Nge said: “It’s a wonderful experience because these are players we normally see only on TV and now they are warming up next to us and we are playing against them.”
Prajogo added: “The consistency of their shots, the pace and angles, which they control very well are things we are not used to and we need to learn from.”
