A tough year for Penty is soon to be over, and a fresh start awaits. 

Toby Penty, 27, is the highest ranked men’s singles player in England, where he has a spot at 54 in the world at the moment. With being the leading men’s singles player, there can be some extra pressure to perform well at tournaments. This is what he had to say. 

- Of course, there is a little bit of extra pressure that comes with that. I think I play well in a lot of matches, I am just not seeing them out as much as I like, or I am up in matches and players are coming back and beating me. 

- It’s really what feels like the last turn of a marathon and into the home straight, and I feel like I am getting pipped a lot. I just have to hang onto the point that I am still playing some good badminton and the results will come again, Penty stated. 

As Penty is the highest ranked English men’s singles player he will likely qualify for Tokyo 2020 and with 62 spots down to the next English men’s singles player, Penty can be calmer and focus on developing his game instead of playing all the tournaments to collect points for the ranking. 

The developing stage 

The last tournament Penty won was the Belgian International back in September 2018. In 2019 he has managed to get a silver medal at the Spanish International in June as he lost to Kunlavut Vitidsarn from Thailand in straight games. 

- It has been a while since I last won a tournament, but at the end of the day, that is not the ultimate objective now. It’s to use these tournaments to improve my play again. I feel I have had a little dip of confidence. The last year has been tough. So yeah, tournament wins are great, but for me it is just the developing stage again. And as I do not have to play a lot of tournaments, I can focus on that, he said. 

- Scottish Open is my last tournament, so it gives me a break to develop and hopefully play the bigger tournaments in Asia next year to see where I am against the bigger players, Penty ended.