PETALING JAYA: Mandarin has become second nature for women’s doubles shuttler Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan, but there was little time for conversation with partner Low Zi Yu after the Malaysian pair suffered an early exit at the Malaysian Masters yesterday.
The youngsters bowed out in front of home fans after going down 18-21, 12-21 to China’s Bao Lijing-Cao Zihan in the opening round at the Unifi Arena in Bukit Jalil.
Still, 18-year-old Noraqilah said learning Mandarin since joining the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has made communicating with teammates and her doubles partner smoother in training and competition.
"It took me about three years of learning the language since I joined BAM to be speaking better now," said Noraqilah.
"I can understand and speak somewhat fluently now.
"With Zi Yu sometimes we use Mandarin or mix things, and it’s the same with other teammates in the national camp; we always mix the languages."
Despite being able to converse comfortably now, Noraqilah admitted that she remains unsure if her Chinese name, given to her by her friends, is accurate.
"I didn’t have a proper Chinese name so my friends gave it to me and I use it on some of my social media platforms, but I’m not sure whether it’s accurate," she said with a laugh.
Zi Yu-Noraqilah arrived at the home tournament after finishing runners-up at the China Masters, missing out on the title to Japan’s Sumire Nakade-Miyu Takahashi on Sunday.
Having entered the main draw after receiving a bye in the qualifying rounds, the world No. 100 Malaysian pair admitted they had a lapse in focus during the encounter with world No. 144 Lijing-Zihan.
A close battle in the opening game was followed with a one-sided affair in the second game with Zi Yu-Noraqilah trailing 0-11 before attempting to catch up, but their efforts were not enough.
"I think we were playing quite well in the first game; we really tried our best. But we let our guard down in the second," said Noraqilah.
"So when we were trailing by 11 points, we tried to catch up, but the gap was too big. They are a really good pair as well, and much more powerful than us."
Lijing-Zihan are coming off a hot run at the Thailand Open, where they captured the title in their international debut as partners by upsetting world No. 7 Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi of Japan.
