Malaysian Women march into the quarter-finals - Badminton news
Malaysian Women marched into the quarter-finals after beating India in a group match of the Uber Cup Asian Zone qualifying round in Macau on Tuesday, February 14.
India, despite having the upper hand over Malaysia in Singles category could not stop Malaysia’s shuttlers from securing a 2-3 victory. It was surely double trouble for India as Malaysia’s top women pairs put up a great show and did not give the Indian shuttlers
a chance even to blink their eyes.
In the first clash, Wong Pei Tty and Chin Eei h*i buried Indian pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa with a significant margin of 21-12 and 21-16. Second duo, Vivian Hoo and Goh Liu Ying then won an important point against India’s Pradya Gadre and Prajakta
Sawant with a 21-17 and 21-17 score on the board.
Indian shuttlers brought back the thrill in the match by winning two Singles games. World Number four Saina Nehwal easily overshadowed her Malaysian opponent Tee Jing Yi with a final score of 21-17 and 21-16. Tee Jing clearly appeared out of touch as Saina
smashed her in just 34 minutes.
On the other hand, P.V. Sindhu snatched the game from Lydia Cheah. Sindhu struggled a bit in first set but she bounced back in next two games by winning with a decisive score of 21-13 and 21-9.
Malaysia’s third Women’s Singles player, Yang Li Lian had to face strong resistance from opponent Sayali Gokhale but Li ensured Malaysia’s spot in the top-8 by beating Sayali Gokhale 21-11, 15-21 and 20-22. Both girls took the game to the next level by fighting
for almost an hour.
This win is crucial for Malaysia as they had earlier lost to China in the opening group matches. The only top two teams from each group will secure their spots in the quarter-finals.
In ongoing qualifying round, teams have been divided into four different groups. Malaysia has been put into the toughest group W with China and India. Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam are in group X. Group Y has Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Kazakhstan while
Group Z includes Japan, Hong Kong and Macau.
The Thomas and Uber Cup finals will be held in Wuhan, China, this May.
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