Ong Beng Hee

Biography

1994–1997 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 British Junior Under-14 Open title in England. A year later he reached the final of the Under-16 British Open, eventually winning the Under-16 title in January 1996. Later that year, he reached the semi-finals of the 1996 World Junior Open in Egypt, competing as a 16-year-old in an event where most fellow competitors were at least two years older. Coached initially by his father, then the Canadian Malaysian national coach Jamie Hickox, Beng Hee moved to England in 1997 to work with Neil Harvey, coach to England's long-time world No 1 Peter Nicol – later moving north to work with Malcolm Willstrop.

1998–2001 In January 1998, he became the British Junior Under-19 Open champion, in his second successive final, beating Egypt’s Wael El Hindi in the final in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. He won the Milo Open in 1999 and 2000. In 2001, Beng Hee reached the quarter-finals of five Super Series events and was the winner of the Macau Open. He won the Swedish Open title in January 2002. then, later in the year, repeating his success over the Australian in the Qatar Classic before achieving a second upset over Egyptian Wael El Hindi to become the only unseeded player to reach the last eight of the Super Series event in Doha. The win endorsed his rise above Iskandar in the PSA rankings – but later took Beng Hee back into the world top ten for the first time since December 2003. After 10 first round exits in his 14 tournament appearances in 2011, Beng Hee won the 2012 Motor City Open in January defeating Hisham Ashour then World #14. In October 2013, Beng Hee won the Royal Lake Club Open, the PSA World Tour Challenger 15 event, in Kuala Lumpur. In the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, UK, an ailing Beng Hee was defeated by Kelvin Ndhlovu from Zambia. In June 2015, he became a coach with the Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia. In 2022, he was named as the head coach for the US national squash programme.

Retirement In July 2015, Beng Hee announced his retirement from competition on the PSA World Tour.

Personal life Beng Hee and his wife Winnie have two daughters – Janelle, born in 2014 and Joelle born in 2016.