Malaysian shuttlers intend to reach at semi-final stage in Thomas Cup Finals – Badminton news
Malaysia’s phenomenal performance in the last week’s Thomas Cup Preliminary Round in Macau puts all national shuttlers on the right track as they are in high spirits and their next target is to make it through to the semi-final of the Thomas Cup Finals,
which will be played in May, at Wuhan, China.
Many people had strong belief that the current Malaysian squad, undoubtedly the weakest one in last two decades, would not even qualify for the Thomas Cup Finals and they were right in their opinion before the tournament.
However, the Malaysian shuttlers, who were underdogs, proved that they were not as vulnerable as many thought of them as they proved their worth and secured a berth in the Finals.
Malaysian players showed a gutsy performance and got top position in their group by beating South Korean opponents, who were stronger on paper. At the quarter-final stage, the Malaysians showed no mercy to Indian players and confirmed their seat in the Finals.
All Malaysian shuttlers particularly World Number One Lee Chong Wei and Men’s Doubles top pair in the country Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong lived up to the expectations and helped their team to reach into semi-final of the event.
However, these top players did not play in semi-final clash against Japan and gave chance to younger shuttlers, who could not overpower Japanese players and lost the match.
Wong Ah Jit, the High Performance team member of Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), was happy and satisfied with the performance of Malaysian players who achieved their target of qualifying for the Thomas Cup Finals.
He said, “They were not expected to go far but the team did well to qualify. They showed hunger and determination to win and that is what we wanted to see. Now, we have to get the second part of the job done.”
He further added, “Except for China, the other teams are beatable. Look at Indonesia, they are about the same standard as Malaysia. It all depends on whether our players can push themselves to the limit. Of course, it will help if we get a favourable draw
too.”
The current performance in the Preliminary Round has boosted the confidence of national shuttlers and they are in a better position to establish their worth at international level.
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