Tuesday May 14, 2013
Coach Tat Meng hopes the women will rise to the occasion
KUALA LUMPUR: It doesn’t matter who – Sonia Cheah or Tee Jing Yi – plays. The women’s singles will still be the weakest link for Malaysia in the Sudirman Cup, which begins on Sunday at Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
But national women’s coach Wong Tat Meng is hoping that home support will spur the players to put up fighting displays.
Tat Meng is aware of the disparity in standard of Malaysia’s women’s singles shuttlers compared to the top teams like China, South Korea, Thailand and India.
Although Sonia did well in the Axiata Cup last month – defeating world No. 9 Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan twice – Tat Meng feels that the biennial Sudirman Cup “will be a new ball game”.
Malaysia are in Group C with Taiwan and Germany. Sonia may get a chance to play against Tzu-ying again when Malaysia open their group fixtures against Taiwan on Sunday at 6pm.
“This will be Sonia’s first Sudirman Cup experience. Yes, she did well in Axiata but playing in the Sudirman Cup is totally different. I’ve advised the players to start afresh and not bank on past glory. I want them to capitalise on home ground advantage,” said Tat Meng.
“Sonia and Jing Yi are of almost equal standard and they are very committed and hard-working players. It’s good that we can depend on two players instead of just one ... like in the past.”
Some of the world class women’s singles players who will be competing in the Sudirman Cup are Li Xuerui, Wang Yihan, Wang Shixian (China); Ratchanok Intanon, Nichaon Jindapon (Thailand); Eriko Hirose, Sayaka Takahashi (Japan); Yip Pui Yin (Hong Kong); Juliane Schenk (Germany); Saina Nehwal, P.V. Sindhu (India); Bae Yeon-ju, Sung Ji-hyun (South Korea); and Linda Fanetri (Indonesia).
Favourites China have sent their best but none is guaranteed a win as players like Ratchanok, Saina, Schenk and Ji-hyun are capable stunning the mighty Chinese.
So perhaps, for the first time in many years, the women’s singles could provide the fans with high-quality matches.
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