Hong Kong’s Ho Tze Lok talks to PSA ahead of the tour resumption
World No.43 Ho Tze Lok has admitted that in order to get further into the major tournaments, she needs to improve her confidence levels.
The Hong Kong #2 was only able to make it through to the second round of one of the major tournaments that she featured in during the 2019-2020 season, but is hoping this season could provide a breakthrough.
“I need to increase my confidence level, I have to believe in myself that I can do it.
“Since I lost quite a lot of matches by a 3-0 scoreline, I think I need to break through it. Also, I need to enhance both physical and racket skills, and I still have a lot of areas that I need to improve in order to enter the later rounds.
“Very average results, cannot manage to get through to the second round of Platinum tournaments. One merit point was that I got an upset and into the second round of World Championship in Cairo.”
That upset came in the form of overcoming a challenge from Egypt’s Mariam Metwally, who was the No.23 seed at the CIB PSA Women’s World Championship in Cairo back in November.
However, Tze Lok failed to make it past the first round at the other five major tournaments she played in, the China Open, U.S. Open, Tournament of Champions, Windy City Open and CIB Black Ball Open.
She started the season well though, with a victory at the City of Greater Bendigo International. The Hong Kong international won the Challenger Tour 5 level event, beating Sarah Cardwell in the final.
Tze Lok then also featured in the last 16 of the HKFC International, where she was playing on home soil, and she enjoyed that more because of that fact.
“That victory in Australia gave me affirmation and confidence, as I was the top seed of that tournament and I finished the week having only lost a single game.
“I loved playing in front of home crowd, I can invite my family and friends to come and support me.
“Playing competitions in Hong Kong is the most comfortable place for me, as I do not have to fight with time difference.”
Although she has not been able to make a move up the World Rankings past her best placing of World No.43, which she first achieved in 2017, the Hong Kong No.2 admits it is much harder now to maintain that ranking place.
“I had achieved World No.43 in August 2017, and returned to No.43 again this season.
“Although there is not much improvement just by looking at the ranking, much hard-work has been done to be back again.
“The tour is getting more and more intense and with a higher quality, it’s difficult to maintain a certain ranking and much more difficult to have a breakthrough in the rankings.”
