PETALING JAYA: There’s a new found optimism in the women’s team heading into the Asia Team Championships following the encouraging showings from singles shuttlers Wong Ling Ching and K. Letshanaa recently.
The Asia team meet which acts as the qualifier for the Uber Cup Finals from April 24-May 3 in Horsens, Denmark, starts tomorrow in Qingdao, China.
Malaysia have struggled in women’s team events but this time there is a glimmer of hope, thanks to the improvement shown by Ling Ching and Letshanaa.
World No. 43 Ling Ching made it into the last four of the Thailand Masters which ended yesterday in Bangkok before going down fighting to another Malaysian Goh Jin Wei.
It was her first semi-final finish in a World Tour Super 300 event.
World No. 38 Letshanaa also secured her maiden last four appearance in a Super 500 event in the Indonesian Masters in Jakarta a week ago.
Singles coaching director Kenneth Jonassen hopes his charges can maintain their form, starting with the Asia team meet.
“Letshanaa and Ling Ching have shown good progress. I believe that confidence is very important and hopefully we can already see the effect of these last two weeks,” said Jonassen.
“Let’s see where this takes us.
“Now, focus begins in the Asia team meet.”
The other singles players in the team are world No. 90 Siti Zulaikha Azmi and world No. 160 Oo Shan Zi.
In the doubles, world No. 25 Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting, world No. 71 Cheng Su Hui-Tan Zhing Yi and Chong Jie Yu-Vanessa Ng (No. 74) have been selected.
Malaysia have been drawn with hosts China in Group W and are already assured of a spot in the last eight.
The team went down 0-3 to Indonesia in the quarter-final in the last edition in 2024.
Malaysia’s best showings were in 2020 and 2022 where the team won bronze.
