Badminton News: Men’s Singles Ng Tze Yong admits there is still a gap between him and Lee Zii Jia in terms of strength and power.

The world number 25 lost 21-8, 18-21, 21-12 to world number 8 Zii Jia in the recent President Cup final in Bukit Kiara.

Despite encouraging results this season, including a sensational victory over world number one Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the second round of the All England in March, Ng Tze Yong has yet to make a big impact on the BWF World Tour.

After playing six tournaments, his best result is a qualification for the quarter-finals of the Thailand Masters, All England and the Swiss Open 2023.

This raises the question whether the Johor native is preferred to start ahead of Zii Jia in the Sudirman Cup group games against Taiwan and India this month (May 14-21). The other team in Group C is Australia.

Tze Yong said, “We all played our best and it was a good experience for me. However, based on the current performance, Zii Jia is indeed better than me.”

Taiwan and India are set to face their best men’s singles players, world number 5 Chou Tien Chen and world number 9 HS Prannoy against Malaysia.

On whether he’s confident to face either player, Tze Yong replied, “I haven’t played against Prannoy yet, so I don’t know what will happen. In all the case, the decision is up to our coach. We will discuss to see what is best.”

Only the top two teams from each group will advance to the Sudirman Cup Round of 16. The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has set a semi-final target for the team.

Tags: ng Tze Yong, Lee Zii Jia, Sudirman Cup 2023