National men’s singles shuttler Leong Jun Hao admitted the recent headlines surrounding his disciplinary issues has affected him, as the 25-year-old suffered another setback at the Malaysia Masters.
Leong gave it his best shot against Chinese shuttler Hu Zhe An who is 69th ranked, but ultimately fell short and lost 19-21, 21-23 after 54-minutes at the Unifi Arena.
This is Leong’s fourth first round defeat this year, and he has yet to progress beyond the second round in any of his competitions.
To compound matters, national performance committee chairman Lee Chong Wei had earlier this week given Leong a final warning for missing several training sessions which he admitted to.
“If I said the incident didn't affect me, I would be lying. As for the match, I tried my best. But he seemed to be able to return all my shots and I couldn’t deal with that.”
Malaysia’s men’s singles shuttlers once again disappointed after Justin Hoh also lost, going down 16-21, 14-21 against Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting.
There was good news in the women’s singles as Goh Jin Wei and K.Letshaana both won their matches to advance to the next round.
Goh is up against India’s Ashmita Chaliha, while Letshaana faces up to Japanese third seed Tomoka Miyazaki.
