Kuala Lumpur: Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin have risen to the No. 10 spot of the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings, and Malaysia now has three men’s pairs ranked in the world’s top 10.
The reigning world champions – Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik, remained at World No. 5, followed by Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi at World No. 9.
Other than Malaysia, only Indonesia has three men’s pairs in the world’s top ten rankings, including World No. 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, World No. 4 Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan, and World No. 6 Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto.
But, here comes a question for the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) – since Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi are currently competing as an independent pair, and they seemed to have very limited resources in terms of fitness training, coaching, and high quality sparring partners. So, instead of creating division, can BAM foster unity and appreciate what Ong/Teo has achieved by letting them use all BAM training facilities and let them receive advice from coaches at BAM such as Rexy Mainaky?
One good example would be the World No. 4 Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan of Indonesia. Technically, they are considered independent players who are responsible for their own expenses, financial gains, or losses. But the good thing is that PBSI allows them to train at PBSI’s facilities and continue to receive guidance from PBSI’s men’s doubles coach – Herry Iman Pierngadi.
Therefore, it would be wise for BAM to create an atmosphere similar to PBSI in order to create a win-win situation for the players, the association, and for the country.
In men’s singles, Lee Zii Jia stayed at World No. 4 while Daren Liew dropped two positions to World No. 30.
