Ng Tze Yong has less than two days to celebrate this Chinese New Year, but the shuttler is eager to feature at the upcoming Badminton Asia Team Championships (BATC), having only played 13-minutes this year.
The national men’s singles shuttler is back at his hometown in Johor on Friday, and will return the following day to prepare for next week’s Asian team championship.
He longs to be back home even for a little while, but after that it will be back to business as he aims to kick-start this year.
“Even if I get to go home for a short while, that is fine. I have a day and a half break before returning back to KL on Saturday.
“But that is fine, because I am ready to play at the BATC. I have hardly played this year due to injury. I want to use this tournament to get a competitive feel.
“In the previous edition, other countries did not send their strongest team. But this year I noticed all teams are sending a strong squad, including us. We will give it our best fight,” he said.
Ng had only played for 13-minutes before having to withdraw against Japan’s Koki Watanabe at the Malaysia Open first round through a back injury.
The world number 15 had aggravated his back after several smashes, and is still working his way back to full fitness.
Ng is also looking to use the BATC as a warm-up before he gets back to action on the World Tour to try and qualify for the Paris Olympics.
At the last BATC in 2022, Ng helped the men’s team lift the title after they beat Indonesia in the final.
This time, the men’s team is also stacked with quality with Lee Zii Jia, Leong Jun Hao and Eogene Ewe in the men’s singles.
Malaysia are expected to qualify from the Group containing Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan and Brunei to the quarter-finals.
