Tze Yong racing against time to feature in final Olympics qualifier

The national men's singles shuttler has been drawn against Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu-wei, whom he recently beat last year at the Kumamoto Masters in Japan.

But the 23-year-old has only played one full match this year, and faces a race to be fully fit for the continental meet, which will be the final Olympics qualifying event.

The shuttler is still not fully fit and is restricted in his movements in training, according to his coaches.

Even if Ng travels to compete in China, he will need to reach the latter stages of the tournament to make it to Paris.

Ng currently sits 17^th in the Race To Paris rankings, one spot below the final automatic qualifying berth.

Weng Hong Yang occupies the final spot to the Paris Olympics, and the Chinese shuttler has a tough opening match on paper against Chou Tien-chen.

Should Weng lose in the opening round and Ng make it to at least the last four of the BAC, he will most likely earn the ticket to the Olympics.

But if Ng can’t recover in time, he will be prepped to feature at the Thomas Cup (April 27-May 5) instead in Chengdu, China.

Lee Zii Jia, who won the 2022 BAC, meanwhile plays Indian shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat.

There are tough draws for the Malaysian shuttlers at the BAC opening round.

Goh Jin Wei has to square off against P.V.Sindhu in the women’s singles, while Pearly Tan-M.Thinaah are up against Japan’s Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara in the women’s doubles.