Tough fight: Soniia Cheah in action against Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani in the first round. — Badminton Photo
SONIIA Cheah’s march to the women’s singles second round of the World Championships in Tokyo has brought back a gush of good memories.
Yesterday, the 29-year-old Soniia marked her return to competitive badminton after a year long break with a hard-fought first-round 21-19, 21-18 win over Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
The independent shuttler took 41 minutes to beat Putri to set up a second-round meeting with fourth seed Chen Yufei of China.
On paper, it’s tough for Soniia, who is making a comeback after an ankle injury, to get the better of Yufei but the Malaysian plans to draw inspiration from her sensational result in Tokyo in 2019.
Then, Soniia upstaged China’s Li Xuerui in the opening round of the Japan Open before losing to Yufei in the second round.
“That win against Xuerui has always been a reminder to me that nothing is impossible,” said Soniia.
“It was one of the most memorable results in my badminton career and it happened here in Tokyo.”
Soniia, however, knows that it will not be easy to get the better of reigning Olympic Games champion Yufei as the world meet is only her first tournament since her Olympics debut a year ago.
She has been affected by an ankle injury and had only started full-time training three months ago.
“Yufei is definitely a tough player to beat, especially when she’s on form now,” admitted Soniia.
“No doubt that there’s a gap between us, but anything can happen. As long as I go out to fight, there’s always a chance.”
For now, Soniia is just happy that she had cleared the first round.
“It feels great to be back on court, but greater to win,” she said.
“Every opportunity to play is a blessing for me under the current circumstances that I’m under. I wish to play all the time, but I need to consider the funding aspect and injuries.
“I’m just thankful to my main sponsor, redOne, and also co-sponsors Ancom Nylex, Sports Affair and Fusionex.”
While it’s all smiles for Soniia, who still remains the country’s top woman shuttler at the 40th position in the world, it was all over for world No. 54 S. Kisona after she went down 10-21, 17-21 to Vu Thi Trang of Vietnam in the opener yesterday.
