Badminton: Malaysia advance to quarter-finals as group runners-up

KUALA LUMPUR: Doubles pairs Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty and Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu had the chance to win a Sudirman Cup world mixed team championship tie for Malaysia against Indonesia in Qingdao last night.

But they fell short and Malaysia were beaten 2-3 to advance to the quarter-finals as the Group B runners-up to Indonesia.

In a fresh draw conducted after all the groups ties were completed last night, Malaysia will take on South Korea today for a place in the semi-finals while Indonesia will be up against Japan tomorrow.

Malaysia were 2-1 up against Indonesia and hopes were high on Eei Hui-Pei Tty to clinch the winning point in the women’s doubles match but they ran out of steam and went down 21-23, 14-21 to Greysia Polii-Meiliana Jauhari.

It was their fifth defeat in as many matches against the Indonesians.

And it was evident that Pei Tty, who is on the comeback trail after recovering from a knee surgery, was still not at her best.

The defeat handed the task to win the tie for Malaysia to the young mixed doubles pair of Peng Soon-Liu Ying.

But they failed to reproduce the same brilliance that saw them beating Fran Kurniawan-Pia Zebadiah Bernadet for the first time at the Malaysia Grand Prix Gold in Alor Setar last month. They were beaten 18-21, 15-21 this time.

The two points won by Malaysia came from the men’s matches. They got off to a winning start with Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong beating Indonesian scratch pair Alven Yulianto-Mohd Ahsan. And Lee Chong Wei also won his match against Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka, who was fielded in favour of the higher ranked Simon Santoso.

In between the two matches, Lydia Cheah crashed to a tame 8-21, 12-21 defeat by Adriyanti Firdasari in just 25 minutes.

Malaysia’s doubles coach Rexy Mainaky admitted that they lost to the better team.

“Eei Hui made lots of mistake today but I do not blame her. She tried her best but nothing seemed to work,” he said.

“It was always going to be 50-50 for Peng Soon and Liu Ying against Fran-Pia. Their opponents came into the match with a 4-1 record in their favour.

“They changed their tactical play and was targeting more on Peng Soon and prevented him from setting up winners for Liu Ying. Overall, though, I am happy with their fighting performances.”

Singles coach Rashid Sidek was happy that the men delivered but he was disappointed with Lydia’s performance.

“Chong Wei did what was expected of him while Lydia was quite nervous today. She is still not used to playing in team events,” he said.

“I fielded her because Tee Jing Yi played in the opening tie (against Russia).

“Now I have a clearer picture on who I can depend on in the quarter-finals.”

Posted by Lucas Liau on 5:09 PM. Filed under Top News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0