PETALING JAYA: Men’s singles shuttler Ng Tze Yong (pic) is set to return to the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil after more than a year for the Malaysian Masters next month.
Tze Yong, who suffered a back injury at the same venue during the Malaysian Open first round in January last year, made his long awaited comeback in the Asian Championships in Ningbo, China, and has been registered for the home Masters from May 20-25.
Although the 24-year-old went down 9-21, 12-21 to Thailand’s reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the opening round in Ningbo, he managed to safeguard his protected world ranking of No. 18 by virtue of competing in the tournament and is now eligible to play in World Tour events.
Tze Yong was forced to miss the home Masters last year due to his injury and will be keen to make his presence felt this time in front of the passionate home fans.
As the eighth seed, he will be the highest seeded Malaysian in the men’s singles competition in the absence of national No. 1 and world No. 8 Lee Zii Jia, who is still sidelined by an ankle injury.
Tze Yong, though, faces a tough task as he is still working on his match fitness after only just returning to tournaments.
While defending champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist Viktor Axelsen of Denmark will be missing through injury, several top players such as another Dane and world No. 2 Anders Antonsen, Kunlavut, China’s world No. 6 Li Shifeng and Japan’s Kodai Naraoka (No. 7) are set to provide stiff competition as well.
Besides Tze Yong, Malaysia will also have world No. 26 Leong Jun Hao in the main draw in the men’s singles while world No. 48 Justin Hoh, Aidil Sholeh Ali Sadikin (No. 52) and Cheam June Wei (No. 56) will start from the qualifying rounds.
The draw for the tournament will be released on May 13.
For the record, Datuk Lee Chong Wei was the last Malaysian to win the men’s singles title when he triumphed in 2016.
Since then, Zii Jia came closest to the crown when he finished runners-up to Axelsen last year.
Meanwhile, Tze Yong will first compete in the back-to-back Taiwan Open (May 6-11) and Thailand Open (May 13-18) before turning his attention to the home tourney.
