PETALING JAYA: Junior men’s doubles shuttler Tan Zhi Yang (pic) is finding the new scoring system in the World Junior Championships mixed team event challenging.
BWF have implemented a shorter 45-point system in this edition’s event as a replacement for last year’s 110-point system.
A player or pair must collect nine points to win a match with victory going to the first team to reach 45 points.
Five matches – men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles – will be played in each tie.
Malaysia got off to a strong start when they beat Slovakia 45-23, 45-14 in a Group C match at the National Centre of Excellence in Guwahati, India, on Monday.
Zhi Yang combined well with Loh Ziheng to beat Andrej Macek-Andrej Suchy 9-6 in the boys’ doubles before teaming up with Nicole Tan in the mixed doubles to topple Alex Petrovic-Lea Kyselicova with a 9-5 scoreline.
Despite the straightforward win, the 18-year-old felt that he was slow and was still adapting to the new scoring system with the matches played much faster.
“We cannot slow down in the new scoring and must attack straight away when we go onto the court,” said Zhi Yang.
“Zhiheng and I need to improve our speed as our start is still slow.
“We used the tie against Slovakia to test the feel of the court and also get adjusted to the fast shuttles used.”
The others in the team that won their matches were Lim Boon Le, Ayu Fu Sheng (boys’ singles), Lim Zhi Shin, Oo Shan Zi (girls’ singles), Damien Ling-Mohd Shazmir Irfan (boys’ doubles), Low Zi Yu-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan (girls’ doubles) and Ziheng-Noraqilah (mixed doubles).
Malaysia will next play Canada in the group.
