Hyderabad: The World No. 117 and 16 year-old Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia is only 1.58m in height, but she can certainly stand tall. Playing against a much taller and much experienced player World No. 11 Sun Yu from China with the height of 1.83m, the little Malaysian girl with big heart was charging up with energy attacks and pulling off one of the shocks of the tournament by beating Sun Yu 21-13, 21-16 in 42 minutes, scoring the only point won by Malaysia in the final Group A tie against China at the Badminton Asian Team Championships (BATC) in Hyderabad, India on Thursday.
The badminton powerhouse China was off to a strong start when Wang Shixian coming out on top against Malaysia’s first women’s singles Ho Yen Mei in a back-and-forth tussle to take the first match 21-19, 21-12.
World No. 1 women’s doubles pair Luo Ying and Luo Yu helped the ‘Great Wall’ edge ahead with 2-0 after dismissing Malaysia’s scratch pair, Amelia Alicia Anscelly/Vivian Hoo Kah Mun 21-14, 21-11.
Goh Jin Wei’s victory in the second women’s singles kept Malaysia’s hopes alive.
Nevertheless, Tang Yuanting/Yu Yang of China clinched the third and decisive point of the tie easily after their Malaysian women’s doubles opponents Chow Mei Kuan/Lee Meng Yean decided to withdraw while trailing 10-18 in the opening set due to injury.
World No. 54th ranked Chinese shuttler Chen Yufei prove too strong for 2015 World Junior Championships runner-up, Lee Ying Ying; winning 21-14, 21-6 in the third women’s singles match to seal the 4-1 win for China.
Due to the injury suffered by Malaysia’s second women’s pair, Malaysia women’s team has called up Lai Pei Jing to serve as an emergency replacement in the women’s doubles category.
On the other hand, the Malaysian men’s badminton team finished as runners-up in Group B after losing to Japan 1-4 in their final group tie.
Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin secure the only point for the Malaysian men’s team after fighting from one set down to beat Takuma Ueda 21-17, 14-21, 17-21 in 68 minutes.
The defeats, however, did not affect Malaysia’s chances in both men’s and women’s category, as they have already qualified for the knockout phase of this tournament after picking up enough victories from the previous competitions.
The Malaysian women’s team will play Thailand at the knockout stage on Friday, while Malaysia men’s team will face India at the knockout stage.
Following is Friday’s draw for the knockout stage:
Men’s Team:
Malaysia vs. India
Hong Kong vs. Indonesia
Korea vs. China
Japan vs. Chinese Taipei
Women’s Team:
Malaysia vs. Thailand
Chinese Taipei vs. Japan
Korea vs. India
China vs. Indonesia
