PSA PLAYER BIOGRAPHY Name: Ong Beng Hee Country: Malaysia Date of Birth: 4 February 1980 Height: 1.75m Place of Birth: Penang Place of Residence: Penang/London Current World Ranking (May 03): 10 Highest World Ranking (Dec 01): 7 National Ranking: 1 PSA Titles: 7 PSA Final Appearances: 11 |
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Ong Beng Hee has become
Malaysia’s most successful squash player of all-time. In August 1998, the
18-year-old from Penang crowned a glittering junior career by becoming the
world junior champion in the USA – an achievement that made him the first
non-Pakistani Asian to claim the world junior title. He began the new millennium outside the top 40. By the end of the year he had won the Asian Championship; had become the first Malaysian to qualify for the British Open, then went on to make the quarter-finals; and had secured three PSA titles. The third of these was in Kuala Lumpur where he became the first home winner of the prestigious Malaysian Open. His sparkling year was rewarded by a leap into the top ten, and a career-best world No7 ranking in December 2001. Ong Beng Hee began playing squash when he was eight – at the 17-court club his squash-enthusiast father had built in Malaysia. He first came to international attention in January 1994 when he won the prestigious British Junior Open U-14 title in England. A year later he reached the final of the U-16 British Open, going one better in January 1996 by winning the U-16 title. Later that year, he showed his promise by reaching the semi-finals of the 1996 World Junior Open in Egypt, competing as a 16-year-old in an event in which most fellow competitors were at least two years older. By this time, Ong Beng Hee was also competing on the PSA Tour, and reached the final of the Milo Open in Kuala Lumpur. Coached initially by his father, then the Canadian Malaysian national coach Jamie Hickox, Ong Beng moved to England in 1997 to work with Neil Harvey, coach to world champion Peter Nicol. “Neil improved my game mentally and physically,” Ong Beng Hee conceded. “I was fit enough for the junior game but I was not quick enough. After playing with Peter Nicol and other players working with Neil, when I got back to the junior game I was much quicker.” In January 1998, he became the British Junior Open U-19 champion, at the age of 17, and joined a select and distinguished group of squash players who have claimed all three British Junior Open titles. In August, Beng Hee clinched the World Junior Open title in his second successive final, beating Egypt’s Wael El Hindi 7-9 9-5 9-0 9-5 in Princeton, USA. In 2001, Ong reached the quarter-finals of five Super Series events, the Flanders Open, PSA Masters, British Open, Hong Kong Open and Al-Ahram International – and in the PSA Masters in Egypt made it through to the last four before bowing out to the eventual champion Jonathon Power. In October, Beng Hee led Malaysia to a best-ever seventh-place finish in the Men’s World Team Championships in Melbourne – then in November he won his sole title of the year when he beat Stefan Casteleyn in the final of the Macau Open. After the disappointment of losing his Malaysian Open title in December - falling to Australia’s Joseph Kneipp in the second round – Beng Hee made a strong start to his 2002 campaign by winning the Swedish Open title in Linköping, beating Finland’s Olli Tuominen 15-10 11-15 15-12 12-15 15-8 in the final of the first major PSA event in Sweden for almost a decade. By his own standards, Ong suffered a disappointing PSA run thereafter – losing in the first round of the Tournament of Champions and becoming a second round casualty in the Pakistan Open, British Open and PSA Masters. However, his earlier Super Series event successes were enough to ensure that the young Malaysian qualified to make his Super Series Finals debut in London in June. In May, Beng Hee delighted his Malaysian fans by successfully defended his title in the Asian Championships in Kuala Lumpur, beating second-seeded Pakistani Mansoor Zaman 9-3 10-8 9-4 in a repeat of the 2000 men’s final in Hong Kong. Ong Beng Hee’s main interests outside squash include ‘watching TV, listening to the radio, travelling and staying in 5-star hotels’ – while his ambitions for the year are ‘to get into the top four and win a medal at the Commonwealth Games’. |
ONG BENG HEE TOURNAMENT SUCCESSES: Jan 94 Winner British Junior Open (U14) ENG Jan 95 Runner-up British Junior Open (U16) ENG Jan 96 Winner British Junior Open (U16) ENG Jul 96 Semi-finalist World Junior Open EGY Oct 96 Runner-up Milo Open MAS Jul 97 Semi-finalist Albuquerque Open USA Sep 97 Semi-finalist Milo Open MAS Jan 98 Winner British Junior Open (U19) ENG Aug 98 Winner World Junior Open USA Dec 98 Quarter-finalist Asian Games THA Jan 99 Runner-up British Junior Open (U19) ENG Jan 99 Runner-up Asian Junior Championships MAS Apr 99 Winner Milo Open MAS Apr 99 Winner Castellanza Open ITA Jul 99 Runner-up Kuala Lumpur Open MAS Oct 99 Runner-up Pakistan Circuit No2 PAK Apr 00 Winner Mega Italia Open ITA Apr 00 Winner Milo Open MAS Jul 00 Winner Asian Championship HKG Oct 00 Quarter-finalist *British Open ENG Oct 00 Semi-finalist Motor City Open USA Oct 00 Semi-finalist Grasshopper Cup SWI Nov 00 Runner-up Macau Open HKG Dec 00 Winner Malaysian Open MAS Feb 01 Quarter-finalist *Flanders Open BEL Apr 01 Semi-finalist *PSA Masters EGY Jun 01 Quarter-finalist *British Open ENG Aug 01 Quarter-finalist *Hong Kong Open HKG Sep 01 Quarter-finalist *Al-Ahram International EGY Oct 01 (7th-placed team) World Team Championships AUS Nov 01 Winner Macau Open MAC Nov 01 Quarter-finalist YMG Capital Classic CAN Dec 01 Quarter-finalist Malaysian Open MAS Jan 02 Winner Swedish Open SWE Jan 02 1st round *Tournament of Champions USA Mar 02 2nd round *Pakistan Open PAK Apr 02 2nd round *British Open ENG Apr 02 2nd round *PSA Masters QAT May 02 Winner Asian Championship MAS * Super Series events
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