SINGAPORE – A more mature and positive Yeo Jia Min claimed her second top-10 scalp in back-to-back tournaments in 2024, as she beat Indonesia’s world No. 7 Gregoria Tunjung 25-23, 21-14 in the India Open’s round of 16 on Jan 18.
The Singaporean world No. 20 will face top-ranked An Se-young next on Jan 19 at the K.D. Jadhav Indoor Hall in New Delhi. The South Korean beat American Zhang Beiwen 21-19, 14-21, 21-14.
Yeo’s quarter-final with An will be a rematch of their last-eight showdown at last week’s Malaysia Open, where An prevailed in three games to extend her head-to-head superiority to 7-1. Yeo had beaten China’s world No. 8 Han Yue earlier in the Super 1000 tournament.
The US$850,000 (S$1.14m) India Open is a Super 750 competition on the third level of the Badminton World Federation World Tour, behind the World Tour Finals and Super 1000 events.
Yeo’s fine start to 2024 is in stark contrast to her five straight defeats to open 2023. Then, she did not make it past the second round of a Super 1000 or Super 750 event and could not beat any top-10 player in 14 attempts.
She told The Straits Times: “I focused on the details of improving my game and saw results in training. That gave me confidence to challenge any top player now.
“However, I don’t like to compare myself to others or look back on the past too much. I will focus only on what is next for me. I became friends with An Se-young when I trained with her and her teammates in South Korea for two weeks in November, and I will try to be mentally sharper for our next match.”
Yeo, 24, had gone into her match against Tunjung trailing 2-6 in their encounters, with the Indonesian enjoying a breakthrough since June 2022, during which she rose from world No. 31 to a career-high seventh. She also beat the Singaporean thrice in 2023.
Under slow conditions that were conducive for long rallies, the first game was a roller-coaster, with both players taking turns to build four-point advantages before trading leads nearer the end.
Yeo was lucky with a couple of points while being out of position, but showed tenacity to save two game points while requiring three of her own to clinch the opener.
While she won only four out of 13 games that went to deuce in 2023, she has managed a perfect two-for-two in 2024.
In the second game, Yeo beat Tunjung at her own game with good court coverage and aggression to record another encouraging win.
National singles head coach Kelvin Ho said: “Jia Min is more mature now in handling different shots and is more accepting of changes in the game. She has grown through the wins and losses in 2023, and developed well working with the coaching team and sparring partners.
“She understands better her strengths and how to bring them into her playing style, so she can be more positive when creating her game plans.”
Singapore Badminton Association technical director Martin Andrew noted Yeo’s improvement since she won the Polish Open in March 2023 to snap the run of losses. He said: “Since then, her performances have grown and she is showing she can match all the top women’s singles players. In the year before that, she had numerous poor draws and struggled to win when she had decent draws.
“But she learnt more about herself and her playing style, which is what is showing through now.
“Every athlete goes through low spells and this is normally where you learn and develop. There is no easy answer to players improving or not getting results. They just have to keep working hard and believing in themselves.
“Progression is not linear in one-v-one sports. Even if they train hard, they may not get the rewards. But if they continue to train the right items and keep pushing, then they give themselves a chance to get good results.”
