SINGAPORE — Promising national youth shuttler Ryan Ng finally won his first regional tournament when he emerged tops in the Boys Singles at the Celcom Axiata Malaysia International Youth U-19 tournament on Saturday.

In a hard-fought final, the 18-year-old held his nerve to overcome his Malaysian counterpart Sim Fong Hau 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-9.

Ryan’s victory comes on the back of a runner-up finish at the India Juniors two weeks’ ago, and the Republic Polytechnic Sports Science and Management student believes these achievements are proof that he is on the right track in his development as a player.

“These two tournaments allowed me to play with some of the best youth athletes from around the world,” Ryan told TODAY.

“I’ve matured a lot as a player during the tournaments, because it provided me with more experience and exposure and I learnt how to better deal with the pressure and intensity of a competition.

“These are things that you don’t learn just from training. In fact, I feel that losing the final in India taught me lessons that came in handy in preparing me for the Malaysian tournament, as I learnt how to be more patient and composed in my game.”

Ryan cited national shuttler Derek Wong, who retired following the Rio Olympics, as one of his sources of inspiration, and expressed his wish to follow in the Singapore No 1 and world No 57 player’s footsteps and represent Singapore at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

“Derek, who’s been like a big brother to us, has left the team and in his absence, we’re all motivated to train even harder,” said Ryan, who is currently ranked 11th in the world at youth level.

“My dream is to play in the Tokyo Olympics and to one day break into the senior top-10 world rankings.”

In the short-term though, Ryan is focused on continuing his winning momentum when he participates in the Indonesia Junior Grand Prix circuit this week.

“It’s definitely going to be an intense tournament because Indonesian players are well-known to be good in the sport,” said Ryan, who left for Indonesia today.

“In addition, I’ve been competing for two weeks straight and haven’t had much time to train or rest. But I’m not going to let this affect me too much and, for sure, I’ll still be going for the gold medal in Indonesia.”