With the quarter-final berth confirmed after China dumped India 5-0 for their second clean sweep in the Sudirman Cup, Malaysia is “motivated to take their game to the next level” in the world mixed team championships.
National team coaching director Wong Choong Hann, speaking from the Chinese city of Nanning, said:
“The win over higher ranked India showed what hard work can do in a tournament.
“This is the time for the players to show what hard work put in by them can do…their desire to remain in the hunt in Nanning.”
Malaysia’s best so far in the biennial championships is reaching the semi-finals in 2009 apart from the quarter-finals in 2015.
“It was not an easy win for us over India after the big defeat to China. Now that we are in the last eight the players are motivated and want to take their game to a higher level. The team lineup will only decide later.”
Choong Hann also revealed that the women’s singles are still undecided. Soniia Cheah played in the defeat to China but gave a good account of herself and took a game off All-England champion and third-ranked Chen Yufei who won 21-15, 21-23, 21-14. Soniia is ranked 23.
World junior champion Goh Jin Wei played in the win over India but was outplayed by India’s world tour finals champion and Olympic silver medallist P. V. Sindhu 21-12, 21-8. RIZAL ABDULLAHĀ
