Eain Yow Ng (MAS) 3-1 [WC] Yahya Elnawsany (EGY) 11-6, 8-11, 11-4, 11-4 (46m)
Since his world junior title in 2016 in Polland, Yow might not have had the path I was expecting for him. He had a few nice wins, but then not really concretising his potential.
But out of the blue, he is Baaaaack! Winning the Malaysian open a few weeks ago, he confirmed today by keeping young hungry Egyptian junior Yahrya under control.
Yahrya likes to attack but today, he kept doing sprint courts and paid the price for…. Up 6/2 in the first, he just never recovered from a huge rally at 6/4 and saw his opponent string the points up to 11/6!
The second looked to go the same way, 6/2 and Yahria looking very dead indeed. But a few quick errors from the Malaysian, and it’s finally a 11/8 for the Egyptian.
But the work that Yow forced his young opponent to produce paid off dividends in the last two games. All credit to the Wadi Degla player to have not given up, and still tried to match Yow, even 9/1 down in the 4th. But Yow was just too accurate, both at the front and back, and such as clever, clever, clever player. He reminds me so much of Beng Hee, not so much for the game, than for the brain….
Between Sivasangari and Yow, I feel that Malaysia is looking pretty good.
“I’ve seen him play a lot in the juniors and today he played well and he had no pressure. I was 6-2 down in the first game but luckily I managed to get that back. In the second game he did the same, but I stuck to my game plan and made it really hard for him and it paid off.
