Head Coach Wong recognises hard work and effort of his charges; Coach also pays tribute to performance of young guns

“LI-NING Hong Kong Open Badminton Championships 2025 part of the HSBC BWF World Tour Super 500” concluded at the Hong Kong Coliseum on Sunday with head coach of the home team, Wong Choong Hann happy to see the exposure made for his charges in a world class tournament. Although Wong admitted the results were far from encouraging, he praised the performance of young guns such as Women’s Doubles pair of Hung Ho Yan/Wong Yan Lam Yanes, hoping the players can build up from what they have learned from the tournament and embark a strong future for their career.

It’s the first time Wong took charge of the team for the home tournament since his appointment as head coach in 2024. Of the results, the two pairs of Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet and Hung Kuei Chung/Tsang Hiu Tan reached the quarter-finals and round of 16 in the Mixed Doubles respectively while other pairs or players exited in the first round.

Wong said if they only looked at the results, it was never ideal. “The players have been training very hard and that’s why I believe they can do better in future. In fact, some of them did not handle the big points well in the tournament. We must resolve the problems, making adjustments so that they can maintain a strong mentality especially when they are leading in the crucial stages of the match.”

Regarding the performance of individual players, he said was both Lee Cheuk Yiu and Jason Gunawan were able to perform to their standard but had to improve some details of their skills so that they can be more competitive against top level players. Ng Ka Long Angus just recovered from injury and will have to strengthen his training programme so that the player can make improvements step by step. Wong, however, felt sorry about Tang and Tse in the Mixed Doubles, saying the pair did not handle the crucial points well, allowing the opponents to come back from behind to beat them. “The pair showed massive improvement from their last few tournaments, taking good initiative and being aggressive enough in their first two matches. They still had a good game in the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, they were left a bit shaken midway through the match when the opponents saved several difficult shots to raise the morale. But this is not the most important. At least, we were able to get back to the track and find the right direction. As long as we can maintain and further strengthen our strongholds, minimise some unnecessary mistakes, the pair can still get back to the highest level and obtain good results.”

He also paid tribute to the performance of Lo Sin Yan Happy in the Women’s Singles. Playing against top seed Wang Zhi Yi of China in the first round after making through the qualifiers, Lo was able to make a strong contest in one and a half games despite the defeat in two games. “She has definitely raised her level although she lost the match,” the coach said. “This proved she is able to compete against the world’s best players. Her hard work and effort during recent training have given her a clear direction and we hope she can acknowledge the improvement she has made and do not look down upon herself when playing against high ranking players.”

In the Women’s Doubles, the team sent eight pairs to the first round, including those who made it from the qualifiers. “There were some very young combinations in the doubles and it is a life-long experience for them to start in the tournament where they played against some of the best players in the world. Of course, we won’t expect them to win but given such an opportunity in the early stages of their career, these young guys should be able to learn something this time, paving the way for them to embark a bright future in their career.”

The head coach praised the pair of Hung Ho Yan and Wong Yan Lam Yanes who extended their world number 22 opponents from Ukraine to three games before conceding the deciding game by two points as they lost 21-15, 16-21, 19-21. “They have improved a lot over the last six months as that come with a very positive training attitude. They have now proved they were able to challenge strong opponents which should also bring encouragement to their young teammates. We hope they can see the results of their hard work that they are not far too behind the world’s mid-level levels and that have nothing do with their age.”

With the Hong Kong Open getting more and more popular among the public, Wong said they knew there had been some criticism of the team in social media and this was unavoidable. “All celebrate when we play well and all question when we are not good enough. This is normal in competitive sport. As players and coaches, we have to face their comments, taking the advice if it helps, making reviews and improving training. We know many people love Hong Kong badminton and that’s why they care, or they just simply ignore us,” Wong said. “The team has been making steady progress over the last 12 months but we also need time to prove the results. I hope they can understand that the team has been working very hard in training and trying the best in competitions and hopefully we can have the results sooner and no later to pay them back.”