PETALING JAYA: It’s time to restore the battered image of Malaysia in the women’s singles department.
Malaysia will be without a representative again in the women’s singles event at the World Tour Finals as none has come even close to the top eight players who made the cut for the finale in Bangkok, Thailand starting tomorrow.
In fact, Malaysia have yet to qualify for the season-ender since former international Wong Mew Choo took part in the 2009 edition, when the tournament was known as the World Super Series Finals.
Mew Choo has retired and given birth to three children, but the women’s singles batch after her have yet to make their marks.
Sonnia Cheah probably was the closest to making the cut but she was hampered by injuries and is no longer very active in the sport.
Currently, two players are in the top 100 and they are the 2017 and 2019 SEA Games champions Goh Jin Wei (39) and S. Kisona (58) respectively. The others are Eoon Qi Xuan (130), Myisha Mohd Khairul (136), Kasturi Radhakrishnan (149), Siti Nurshuhaini Azman (192), Soniia (197), K. Letshanaa (221), and Tan Zhing Yi (228), to mention a few.
National singles coaching director Wong Choong Hann is aware of the poor state Malaysia are in, in the women’s singles department, currently coached by James Chua, who only came to the scene a couple of months back.
“It’s not a good year for the women’s singles. We are fully aware that this department need to restored. We’ll are in the process of rebuilding it,” said Choong Hann.
“There will be some changes next and expect a few new faces too.”
Independent shuttler seems to be the only one with a realistic chance of qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics but it all depends on her physical condition.
Injuries have indeed been one of the major factors that had hampered the progress of several talented women singles players over the years, but some players have also left the scene due to personal reasons, different commitments, disappointments over selections and lack of motivations.
