KUALA LUMPUR: Addeen Idrakie has been a national squash player for 12 years, but he has yet to play in the World Championships.
To qualify for the World Championships in Cairo from May 9-17, the Selangor player needs to win the Asian Qualifier which begins tomorrow at the NSC Courts.
Sixteen men will compete in the Asian Qualifier for only one ticket to Cairo.
Second seed Addeen will face Hong Kong's Leo Chung in the first round. If the national No. 2 succeeds, he is likely to meet Kuwait's Ammar Altamimi in the quarter-finals. The top seed is Japan's world No. 59 Ryunosuke Tsukue.
Addeen said: "I have never played in the World Championships before. My goal is to try to win the Asian Qualifier.
"I will focus on playing my best squash. I think everyone has the same chance to win as the standards of the players are about the same."
Addeen struggled in the six PSA competitions that he played in this season. He lost in the first round in five tournaments and only managed to reach the second round in the Pittsburg Open in February.
World No. 66 Addeen added: "I'm not happy with my world ranking. I need to be at least close to the top 50 for my age. I'm 30 this year and I want to continue playing for Malaysia for five more years."
The other Malaysians in the men's qualifier are Syafiq Kamal, Darren Pragasam, Ong Sai Hung, Bryan Lim and Hafiz Zhafri.
The Malaysians competing in the women's qualifier are Chan Yiwen, K. Sehveetrraa, U. Thanusaa, Goh Zhi Xuan and Chen Yu Jie.
Six Malaysians have qualified automatically for the World Championships based on their rankings. They are world No. 16 Ng Eain Yow, world No. 13 S. Sivasangari, No. 28 Rachel Arnold, No. 34 Aifa Azman, No. 41 Aira Azman and No. 56 Ainaa Amani.