Mixed doubles shuttlers Loh Ziheng-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan
PETALING JAYA: Mixed doubles shuttlers Loh Ziheng-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan have vowed to step up in the World Junior Championships in the absence of the injured Dania Sofea Zaidi.
The Malaysian junior team’s preparations for the world juniors were hit hard after the talented Dania was ruled out of the tournament from Oct 6-19 in Guwahati, India after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in her left knee last month.
Dania’s absence leaves a big void behind as she was Malaysia’s best hope to win medals in both the girls’ doubles and mixed doubles with Low Zi Yu and Datu Anif Isaac respectively.
Ziheng-Noraqilah now shoulder more responsibility in the meet as they are the country’s No. 2 junior mixed doubles pair behind Anif-Dania and are out to win a medal in the event.
“Definitely, there’s more responsibility on us with Dania out injured and we know we have to step up,” said Ziheng.
“We will fight hard to try to win a medal. So far, our preparations are going well and we hope to bring out our best game in the tournament.”
Ziheng-Noraqilah, who are both 17, proved their potential when they captured the Under-18 national title in April.
The pair also received a confidence boost ahead of the worlds when they made it into a World Tour Super 100 quarter-finals for the first time in the Indonesian Masters in Riau last week.
Ziheng-Noraqilah stunned India’s world No. 34 K. Satish Kumar-Aadya Variyath before going down to Denmark’s former world No. 8 Mathias Christiansen-Alexandra Boje.
“We never expected to reach the quarter-finals in Indonesia. It was a breakthrough for us,” said Noraqilah.
“This has given us more confidence. We also gained valuable experience playing against top pairs.
“We believe this will help us a lot in the world junior meet.”
Ziheng-Noraqilah are also keen to make amends after missing out on a medal in the Asian Junior Championships in Solo, Indonesia in July.
The duo lost out to Indonesia’s Ikhsan Pramudya-Rinjani Nastine in the last eight.
“We did not play our best in the quarter-finals. We lacked fire,” said Ziheng.
“We are working hard to improve and we want to do better in the worlds.”
