PETALING JAYA: Shuttler Aidil Sholeh Ali Sadikin’s encouraging progress is timely as Malaysia continue to struggle in the men’s singles this year.
With national No. 1 Lee Zii Jia still missing from the scene due to an ankle injury and No. 2 Leong Jun Hao searching for consistency, the country badly need someone to step up in the event.
Aidil, who reached a career high No. 48 in the world rankings recently, showed good improvement in the Thailand Open where he made it into the second round before going down fighting 21-18, 16-21, 14-21 to China’s world No. 14 Lu Guangzu in Bangkok on Thursday.
Despite missing out on the biggest win in his career, it was the 25-year-old’s best finish in a World Tour Super 500 tourney.
Good outing: Aidil Sholeh Ali Sadikin gave an impressive display despite losing in the second round of the Thailand Open.
Aidil’s progress is remarkable considering that he was ranked as low as No. 135 when he was dropped by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) in 2023.
The Selangor player has found a new lease of life under Indonesian coach Nova Armada, who also guides national No. 1 women’s singles shuttler Goh Jin Wei and two-time Paralympic champion Cheah Liek Hou.
Nova was happy with Aidil’s performance in Bangkok and wants his charge to keep pushing himself to reach a higher level.
“Aidil’s performance was quite good in Thailand. My target was for him to get past the qualifying rounds first and he surpassed that,” said Nova.
“His fitness is getting better and he has gained in confidence. He is very hardworking and is adapting well to my training programme.
“He still has areas to improve though like his stamina which needs to be even better and he needs to add more variety in his game.
“Against Guangzu, I just told him to not overthink and give him a tough fight. In the second game, he could have won if he pushed himself a bit more.
“He needs to keep working hard and try to break into the world’s top 32 rankings by the end of this year,” added Nova.
Aidil was the only Malaysian in the men’s singles to reach the second round in Bangkok.
He is now close to overtaking current national No. 3 Justin Hoh in the rankings with the latter lying at 45.
Aidil has another opportunity to prove himself when he competes in the Malaysian Masters starting on Tuesday at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.
He will open his campaign against Taiwan’s world No. 65 Huang Yu-kai in the first qualifying round.
