Kuala Lumpur: In preparation for the upcoming 2023 Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships (BAMTC) which will be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), from February 14 to February 19, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) will begin its training camp on Monday combining both BAM and professional players.
The singles Director of Coaching Wong Choong Hann said that during the training camp, the coaches would help two men’s singles players – Lee Zii Jia and Leong Jun Hao to make some tactical changes.
“They have been struggling and we’ll help them to improve their control on the court,” said Wong.
“In terms of physical fitness and stamina, I think they have no problem,” added Wong.
“It’s just that I think both players have problems changing tactics during a match, which allowed their opponents to take advantage of this problem to score points over them. Therefore, we’ll work on this during the training camp,” continued Wong.
The World No. 4 Lee Zii Jia had gotten off to a slow start thus far in 2023 when he lost to Angus Ng Ka Long 21-16, 20-22, 13-21 in the Indonesia Masters second round, also crashed out in the round of 16 at the 2023 India Open, and in the first round of the 2023 Malaysia Open.
The World No. 66 Leong Jun Hao also suffered a lackluster start to the season when he failed to get past the qualifying round at his first tournament of the year at the Thailand Masters last Tuesday.
Speaking to Malaysian media, Leong said he wanted to forget the disappointment of being eliminated in the qualifying round in Bangkok and instead would like to focus on making the best preparations to help the team in Dubai.
“I will make my best preparations and will improve my weaknesses. I don’t want to think about what has happened and if given the opportunity to play at BAMTC, of course, I will do my best to help the team,” said Leong.
In addition to Lee Zii Jia and Leong Jun Hao in the men’s singles event, Malaysia also listed Goh Jin Wei and Wong Ling Ching (women’s singles); Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik and Teo Ee Yi/Ong Yew Sin (men’s doubles); Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan and Teo Mei Xing/Go Pei Kee (women’s doubles); Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing and Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei (mixed doubles).
Malaysia was seeded fourth in the 2023 BAMTC and was drawn in Group B alongside India, Kazakhstan, and the UAE. The Malaysian team is expected to at least make the semi-finals of BAMTC.
