KUALA LUMPUR: Former All England champion Hafiz Hashim was among the Malaysian badminton fans who were kept on the edge of their seat as they watched Ng Tze Yong create a sensational upset by outlasting world No 1 Viktor Axelsen in the last 16 of the All England yesterday.
And there's certainly no one better to relate to such an incredible moment than the 40-year-old who was a winner himself 20 years ago.
Hafiz pulled off one of the biggest upsets in All England history when he stunned top seed and defending champion Chen Hong 17-14, 15-10 in the final.
The win saw Hafiz end Malaysia's 37-year wait for A ll England glory.
Hence, Hafiz could not be prouder when Tze Yong, 22, accomplished a near-identical feat against Axelsen, also the top seed and defending champion in the world's oldest tournament, albeit in an earlier round.
Some of the key elements which helped Tze Yong overcome his more fancied rival, according to Hafiz, were the execution of the right game plan and mental toughness.
"It's never easy for Tze Yong to play against a very formidable Axelsen on the big stage like the All England, let alone beating him," said Hafiz, who recently moved to Hyderabad, India to work as a coach at the Suchitra Badminton Academy.
"Even after allowing Axelsen to overturn a 19-15 deficit and reach the match point first (at 20-19) Tze Yong showed his strong desire to upset Axelsen and he did just that by prevailing in the deuce battle.
"Tze Yong did get a bit lucky with Axelsen committing some mistakes while he was holding the match points, let's take nothing away from him.
"That's a really remarkable achievement by Tze Yong and it's going to do his confidence a whole world of good.
"Tze Yong was also playing it smart as he went into an offensive mode early on and put pressure on Axelsen.
"He dared to take the game to Axelsen, pushing himself very hard and got rewarded handsomely with the opening game win. The first game defeat must have stunned Axelsen, he probably didn't see that coming.
"In the second game, Tze Yong can be seen not exerting himself to conserve energy.
"Had Tze Yong exhausted his energy and lost the second game, then Axelsen will have had the upper hand.
""In the final game, Axelsen really dug deep into his reserves to try to win. But Tze Yong was resilient enough to pull through."
Hafiz, however, pointed out that he was more interested to see how good is Tze Yong's recovery rate and whether he has the endurance power to stay at the top of his game in the latter stages.
"The match against Axelsen has drained Tze Yong out. It will be interesting to see if he can recover soon enough and play at the same intensity in the quarter-finals (against Li Shi Feng of China).
"If he doesn't recover in time, it would be hard for him to go past the next round. If he does, then I can see him go all the way to the final and even fight for the title.
"How well and fast he can recover after a gruelling match will really tell us just how good Tze Yong is.
"If Tze Yong's run gets stopped in the last eight, then the win against Axelsen would be less significant," said Hafiz.