KUALA LUMPUR: This week's Bright Up Cup in Jakarta may only be an exhibition, but national men's singles coach Hendrawan wants his charge Leong Jun Hao to make the best out of it.
Jun Hao, 23 and national No. 1 Ng Tze Yong have been invited to join other top players like recently crowned Hylo Open champion Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, reigning Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie, Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo and Thailand's Thammasin Sitthikom for the two-day event at the Tennis Indoor Senayan.
For Tze Yong, his main focus is still next week's Super 300 Australian Open as he needs to improve his world ranking.
However, for Jun Hao, it is an opportunity not to be missed.
"This is just an exhibition tournament, but a very good one for our players because it involves a few top shuttlers like Anthony and Jonatan.
"More importantly, I want Jun Hao to benefit from this because it is one of the very few opportunities he will get to go face-to-face against some of the world's best.
"I want him to go all out and gain valuable lessons," said Hendrawan, who expects to see Jun Hao break into the world's top 50 soon.
Despite being the most senior member of the national singles squad, Jun Hao has not really made progress since winning the 2017 Asian junior title.
However, things are beginning to look good for the world No. 72 injury-prone shuttler after he reached the final of the Malaysia Games in September and landed his maiden World Tour title (Super 100 Indonesia Masters) in Malang last month.
The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) want to see Jun Hao catch up with Tze Yong and have registered him for the Bahrain International Challenge on Nov 29 to Dec 4.
If everything goes well for the Kuala Lumpur-born shuttler, he will likely see more action in higher-tier tournaments next year.