Ee Yi-Yew Sin rewarded with selection to first Asian mixed team event

KUALA LUMPUR: Teo Ee Yi-Ong Yew Sin are reaping the rewards of their hard work.

The national No. 2 men’s doubles pair have been selected to represent Malaysia at the inaugural Badminton Asia Mixed Team Cham­pionships in Ho Chi Minh City from Feb 14-19.

If they perform above expectations, they may be selected for the Sudirman Cup world mixed team championships in Gold Coast, Australia, from May 21-28.

The other players for the Ho Chi Minh City assignment will be finalised before closing date on Tuesday.

Malaysia are expected to rest some of their seniors and give several top back-up players the chance to strut their stuff.

National coach Jeremy Gan said that reigning national champions Ee Yi-Yew Sin had done well and were an easy pick.

“We are not sending Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong. This is a chance for Ee Yi-Yew Sin to step up in the team event,” said Jeremy.

Ee Yi-Yew Sin won four international titles at the lower-tier Grand Prix Gold and Challenge levels – the Portuguese International Challenge and Romanian International Challenge in March, Vietnam International Challenge in June and Bitburger Open in Germany in October.

Their most notable result was a quarter-final finish in the Hong Kong Open Superseries event.

The world No. 26 are expected to feature in more Superseries tournaments this year.

Badminton Asia chief operating officer Kenny Goh is happy that most the countries will be sending formidable line-ups for the first mixed team tournament.

“We’re hosting it for the first time. It will be a good ‘warm-up’ ahead of the Sudirman Cup this year,” said Kenny.

“We are looking at a 12-team competition. So far, nine countries have submitted their entries.”

China are likely to send a strong team, including the likes of Olympic champion Zhang Nan, World Superseries Finals champions Zheng Siwei-Chen Qingchen (mixed doubles) and Jia Yifan-Qingchen (women’s doubles). They also have reigning world junior champion Chen Yufei.

The other countries confirmed so far are Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Vietnam and Maldives.