ONE man played a pivotal role as Malaysia exerted sweet revenge against Thomas Cup champion India at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games mixed team final during the wee hours of this morning – the 22 year-old Ng Tze Yong (India had ousted Malaysia from the Thomas Cup tournament at the quarterfinal stage in May) .
Filling in a big shoe after national ace Lee Zii Jia decided to skip the quadrennial international multi-sport event due to a recurring injury, the unheralded Johor-born shuttler has fully repaid the trust of his coach Hendrawan when he toppled former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth in rubber games 21-19, 6-21, 21-16.
All had expected the underdog Tze Yong to ‘easily crash out’ but he proved his mettle with superb attacking and solid defence to match his opponent all the way until he wore the world No. 11 out.
For the record, Srikanth was the team’s hero at the previous Games’s final in Gold Coast (Australia) when he upstaged Lee Chong Wei in the mixed team.
Tze Yong’s victorious debut which paved the way to dethroning India with a 3-1 scoreline came after national top doubles pair of Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik ‘demolished’ Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty in straight sets 21-18, 21-15.
Then came women’s single shuttler Goh Jin Wei who gave her more superior opponent and 2019 World Championships gold medallist P.V. Sindhu a run for her money before bowing out narrowly 20-22, 17-21 to allow India to tie the score at 1-1.
Women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah delivered the winning point which culminated in a gold medal when they overcame Tressa Jolly-Gayathri Gopichand 21-18, 21-17.
‘Big hearted’
Birmingham 2022 is indeed a memorable one for Tze Yong. Apart from his instrumental role in enabling Malaysia to bag the gold medal, Tze Yong had displayed immense sportsmanship last Friday (July 29) when he alongside Hendrawan came under the spotlight during a heart-warming incident when Malaysia took on Jamaica at the preliminary level.
Both the player and coach had come to Samuel Ricketts’ aid after the Jamaican shuttler struggled without proper footwear in the second game of the men’s singles event when the sole of his shoe gave way. Ricketts’ coach passed him a pair of shoes given by his teammate but it did not fit him properly.
Tze Yong who was then trailing 4-5 to Ricketts had asked him what was his shoe size and related the news to Hendrawan. And the big-hearted man took off his own shoes and handed it over to the Jamaican.
It fitted Ricketts perfectly but it was not good enough to beat Tze Yong who triumphed 21-12, 21-16.
“I gave him mine and told him to keep the shoes as a gift,” Hendrawan was cited by StarSports as saying. “We knew something was wrong with his shoes and I asked Tze Yong to get Ricketts’ shoe size. Mine was size 28 and Ricketts’ was almost the same.”
The Indonesian did not stop there but inspired the Jamaican with some encouraging words.
“I motivated him to play well and keep training hard and encouraged him to represent his country in the Olympics,” added Hendrawan who had won honours in every major event during his playing time. – Aug 3, 2022
