National shuttler Ryan Ng made the most of a new scoring system to win his maiden international title.
The 18-year-old was crowned champion at the Malaysia International Youth Under-19 tournament in Terengganu on Saturday, beating Malaysia's Sim Fong Hau 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-9.
The win, which included victory over home favourite and world junior No. 5 Lee Zii Jia in the semi-finals, followed a final appearance at the India Junior International the previous week.
His recent run will place the 11th-ranked Singaporean among the world's top 10 juniors.
The two events were his first taste at competing under the new 11-point, five-game scoring format under trial by the Badminton World Federation.
He said: "It makes the game much shorter, more intense and requires a lot more focus. But it makes me treasure every point (more) and be patient. My style has always been aggressive so I feel the 11-point format is to my advantage."
Still, it took mental fortitude for the Republic Polytechnic sport and leisure management student to ignore previous head-to-head records against some opponents in the draw.
That included taking Malaysian Tan Jia Wei to the decider in the quarter-finals, winning 12-10, 11-5, 9-11, 6-11, 11-7. It was his first win over Tan in four encounters.
Said Ng, the third seed: "I played with a much clearer mindset this time. But I just focused this time on playing to my very best."
The result will be a boost for Ng, who left for Jakarta this morning to compete in the Pembangunan Jaya Raya Junior Grand Prix, another U-19 event.
It is also welcome news following the recent retirement of two-time Olympian Derek Wong, Singapore's top men's singles player who reached a career-high world ranking of No. 37.
"This is a big boost for me," said world No. 277 Ng. "Derek has always been a big brother to all of us, and I just want to train hard and try to fill the void that he's left behind."
Said coach Kelvin Ho: "Ryan has really showed maturity these two weeks. He's very clear in what he wants to do on court.
"Derek has set a very high standard so there's still some way to go for Ryan in terms of consistency and court movement. But he has played well."
