Wong Ling Ching
PETALING JAYA: National women’s singles shuttler Wong Ling Ching is hoping that her experience in the Iran International Challenge will help her to fare well in the Asian Mixed Team Championships.
The 20-year-old Ling Ching started her campaign with an easy 21-4, 21-11 win against host Seyedeh Artine before stunning fifth seed Ester Nurumi of Indonesia 21-10, 15-21, 21-19 in the second round.
She, however, couldn’t maintain her fine form in the third round as she went down fighting to world No. 108 Neslihan Yigit of Turkey at the Afrasiabi Hall in Teheran.
Ling Ching admitted that she has to improve on a few aspects in order to give a better performance.
“I’ve tried my best ... My opponent (Yigit) is more experienced and stronger than I am,” she said.
“Based on my performance, I realised that I need to work harder on my strength and attacking skills from the back court in order to perform better in my next tournament.’’
Ling Ching will now shift her focus to the Asian meet, which is scheduled to take place at the Dubai Exhibition Centre in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from Feb 14-19.
World No. 228 Ling Ching will join independent player and world No. 29 Goh Jin Wei to play in the women’s singles.
Ling Ching will train with both national and independent players in a centralised training camp as part of their preparations for the Dubai meet at the Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara from Feb 6-11.
Malaysia will join India, Kazakhstan and the UAE in Group B for the group stage of the championship, where the top two teams in the group will advance to the quarter-finals.
The Asian stint serves as the qualifier for the Sudirman Cup from May 14-21 in Suzhou, China.
