‘The pressure’s on Chong Wei, not me’

RIO DE JANEIRO — Train, eat, sleep, repeat. That is the routine national shuttlers Derek Wong and Liang Xiaoyu have been following religiously since arriving in Rio more than a week ago.

And the wait will finally be over for the Singaporeans tomorrow, as world No 55 Wong kicks off his Olympic men’s singles campaign against Suriname’s Soren Opti (318) at 9.45pm (Singapore time), with Liang to feature in the women’s singles action a day later.

Wong’s biggest test will come on Sunday, when the 27-year-old comes up against world No 1 Malaysian Lee Chong Wei in their Group A encounter.

Wong has never beaten Lee — who is gunning for Malaysia’s first-ever Olympic gold after winning silver in 2008 and 2012 — in their three encounters, including a 
recent 21-10, 21-10 loss to the Malaysian shuttler at this year’s Malaysia Masters.

But Wong is not about to back away from the challenge, as he told TODAY after a training session at Riocentro Pavilion 4 on Wednesday afternoon. “I’m feeling good, we’ve just been going to training, the gym, and it’s great that we’ve been able to get other players here from 
Vietnam, Malaysia, Poland and Israel to spar with,” he said.

Wong has met Lee a few times at the Olympic Village and warm-up court in the past weeks. “Chong Wei has so much experience and he’s a world-class player,” said Wong. “He’s very quick on court, and this kind of player is dangerous, as you never know what he’s going to do. He’s able to inject speed into the game and change the pace suddenly.”

In an earlier interview with TODAY, former world no 6 shuttler Ronald Susilo — who beat Lee twice during his career — said Wong needed to play a patient game in order to better his opponent.

While agreeing with Susilo’s assessment, Wong added: “Yes, you have to be patient to play him, but by that time, he would have killed you already! I have nothing to lose … (but) he is under pressure to get into the final and get the gold. He has the hunger to win but so do I. Every group here is the group of death, and while I would have preferred playing the top players later on rather than early in the competition, you must always be ready.”

Olympic debutante Liang, ranked 31st in the world, will face Group C opponent Delphine Lansac (51) in her opening match at the Riocentro Pavilion 4, before taking on South Korean Sung Ji-hyun (7).

While Liang notched a 2-0 victory over Lansac at last year’s Sudirman Cup, she has never beaten Sung — who won the New Zealand Open and International Badminton Championships this season — in her two outings against the world No 7 player.

“The South Korean player is stronger but this is the Olympic Games, so you cannot underestimate any of your opponents and you have to prepare yourself well,” she said. “I am a little bit nervous about my Olympic debut, but so will everyone as this is such a big competition. But I have to be steady during my match, and that will be crucial to winning.”