Tze Yong misses the Axiata cheers
Tze Yong injured his back at the same venue during the first round of the Malaysia Open in January last year and aggravated it at the Asian Team Championships in Shah Alam a month later.
After two surgeries and a long layoff, Tze Yong's world ranking has plunged to No. 239, and he has not won any of his first round matches at the Asian Championships in China last month, the Taiwan Open and Thailand's Open over the last two weeks.
Tze Yong will find himself the underdog when he plays world No. 21 Angus Ng of Hong Kong in the first round tomorrow despite the Malaysian's 2-1 head-to-head record.
"I am really excited to play at this home tournament after more than a year. I missed the cheers and encouragement of the supporters," said Tze Yong.
"I am the underdog now as my ranking has slipped down and past records don't matter.
"Although I have not won since my comeback, I have been improving steadily where I played more than an hour at the Taiwan Open. I hope to get my first win here."
Malaysia's world No. 25 Leong Jun Hao and world No. 45 Justin Hoh also face tough openers.
Jun Hao, nursing an elbow niggle, will face a tough time against Ireland's world No. 33 Nhat Nguyen while Justin is up against world No. 8 Kodai Naraoka of Japan.
National singles coaching director Kenneth Jonassen hopes that the players can cash in on playing at home despite facing strong opposition.
"I hope we can use the fact that we are playing at home as an advantage. They are meeting strong opponents, but we cannot expect anything else when competing in a Super 500 event," said Jonassen.
"As for Justin, playing a world- class player like Naraoka is the best way to test his own ability."
Justin, who was supposed to play in the qualifiers, was promoted to the main draw after the withdrawal of top seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark on Monday.
In the women's singles first round, independent world No. 44 Goh Jin Wei will take on world No. 11 Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand while world No. 57 K. Letshanaa will play world No. 48 Han Qian Xi of China.
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