PETALING JAYA: Rising pair Low Zi Yu-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan (pic) may be closing in on a top-100 breakthrough after their recent outing at the Uber Cup, but Noraqilah admits there is still a big gap to their seniors.
The 18-year-old Noraqilah and Zi Yu, 16, turned heads in Horsens after stunning world No. 7 Japanese pair Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi to deliver the only point in Malaysia’s 1-4 defeat in the final Group B tie.
The impressive performance saw them move up 12 spots to world No. 131 after the Badminton World Federation (BWF) updated the rankings yesterday.
However, the duo are not feeling pressured by growing comparisons to world No. 2 Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah following their performance in Denmark.
“To me, our level is still quite far to be fighting with Pearly and Thinaah, especially when it comes to experience and game maturity,” said Noraqilah when met at the Academy Badminton Malaysia yesterday.
“Zi Yu and I are still trying to rise, so I don’t think we can be compared to them yet.
“They are much more mature and better at their game. For us, we are just trying to put out the best performance that we can and not think about competing against them for now.”
Although Noraqilah admitted she could not set a clear timeline to be on par with Pearly-Thinaah, she remains optimistic about catching up.
“I’m not sure how long it would take to catch up, but I would like it to happen as soon as possible. Still, we can’t rush things.
“For now, we just have to follow the training programmes from the coaches and improve as much as we can,” she said.
