The world No. 4 struggled in his match against India’s Sameer Verma in the first round and needed three games to overcome his rival yesterday.
Tien-chen admitted that he was far from his best in the 12-21, 21-12, 21-14 win in 52 minutes and needed to do more to be able to challenge for the title. “It will not be easy to win the title even if there is no Axelsen or Zii Jia. I still need to play my best badminton in every match. As you saw in my opening match, it was hard for me. I struggled a bit to control the shuttle in the first game,” explained Tien-chen.
“The other players in the competition are also really good. You really need to focus on your match to win even if you are a top 10 player,” he added.After finishing runners-up to Axelsen in the Indonesian Masters last month, Tien-chen was surprisingly eliminated in the second round of both the Indonesian and Malaysian Opens by Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu and India’s H.S. Prannoy respectively.
“My form has not been so good in the past two tournaments. I need to raise my game fast,” said Tien-chen, who is trying to end a four-year World Tour title drought.He will next take on local hope Ng Tze Yong for a place in the quarter-finals.
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