After a tough 12 months, Jia Min hoping for breakthrough results in Olympic year

New Delhi: A year ago, Singapore’s Jia Min Yeo was looking down the barrel after five first-round exits in as many tournaments.

Jia Min managed to win the Polish Open International Challenge but didn’t have much to show for the rest of the season, making just four quarterfinals in the world tour events. From a career-high ranking of 16 in 2022, she sunk to 37 at one stage as she could not beat any top-10 player in 14 attempts last year.

But now the tide is gradually turning. The 24-year-old shuttler had advanced to the quarterfinals of the season-opening Malaysia Open Super 1000 recently, and is currently eyeing a title at the India Open Super 750 after progressing to the semifinals.

“There have been many down and low periods where I couldn’t find the right answers,” Jia Min said after entering the semifinal with her opponent An Se Young retiring with an injury.

“Pushing through and grinding, I just kept working hard in training and that’s where I could slowly find some improvements and hopefully from today I can keep getting better.”

She beat world No. 8 Han Yue in the second round of the Malaysia Open last week and recorded a win over world No. 7 Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall here.

With the Paris Olympics just six months away, Jia Min, a Tokyo Olympian, has reclaimed her spot in the world’s top 20.

“I think how I managed to get better is to just keep focusing on what’s next for me and what can I do and trying not to look back at the past too much. “So, yeah, it’s just like the same thing, I will focus on tomorrow’s match and prepare myself physically and mentally.

“I hope that this year I can have much more breakthrough results. I was working on things in training and I saw that there have been some improvements, so I was excited to see where it will take me,” she said. The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist had withdrawn from the 2022 India Open before her quarterfinal match after developing a fever, which later turned out to be COVID-19.

She was detected with COVID again in August, spoiling her plans of participating in the World Championships.

Jia Min had a two-week training stint in November with Young and her Korean teammates. Though her win against the world No. 1 Korean came in unfortunate circumstances, she gave a good display so far in the tournament.

“I did train with her (An Se Young). So that was good to see my ability where I am at. I think physically also I’ve been working hard. I think hopefully everything will come together at the right time.”

The Singaporean will next face former world No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying. “I think it’s been some time since I played with her. She’s also a very skillful player and has good physical ability. So, I have to be ready to run a lot tomorrow and just not give up for every point,” said the 2017 Asian Junior bronze medallist.