Khe Wei needs more time to regain full fitness ahead of Nanjing test

PETALING JAYA: National women’s doubles shuttler Woon Khe Wei (pic) will head straight to Nanjing for the World Cham­pionships next week.

The 29-year-old was supposed to be reunited with Vivian Hoo in the Russian Open in Vladivostok yesterday for her first competitive action in six months, but her long-awaited return has been delayed by a week.

She injured her knee during the Asian Team Championships in Alor Setar in Feb­ruary.

The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have pulled Vivian-Khe Wei out from the Russia Open, which was supposed to serve as a warm-up before the world meet.

National coach Wong Pei Tty said Khe Wei needs an extra week to return to full match fitness.

“We decided not to take any chances by sending Khe Wei to Russia. She’s not quite ready yet, so it’s better that she spends another week to get herself into shape for the World Championships instead,” said Pei Tty.

“To help her shrug off rustiness, we will organise simulation matches for her to get back into competitive mood. She has been really committed in the training, she is pushing herself to the limit.”

But the biggest challenge for Khe Wei, said Pei Tty, is to overcome her post-injury fear.

“This is not the first time she suffered a major injury (the other time was in 2016). Although she’s now pain free, the fear of injury recurrence is definitely there,” added Pei Tty.

“Hopefully she will overcome it bravely and not let the fear hold her back from producing her best.”

In Nanjing, Vivian-Khe Wei have been drawn to face Delphine Delrue-Lea Palermo of France in the first round.

They should have no problem progressing into the next stage where reigning Olympic champions Misaki Matsutomo-Ayaka Takahashi of Japan await them.

Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean are the other Malaysian women’s doubles representatives in the fray.

Meanwhile, it was a disappointing start for Malaysia at the Russian Open with men’s singles Tan Jia Wei and Sim Fong Hau failing to clear the first hurdles.

Jia Wei, the Malaysian International Challenge finalist in April, lost tamely 17-21, 16-21 to India’s Siddharth Pratap Singh while Fong Hau went down 11-21, 15-21 to Koki Watanabe of Japan.