PETALING JAYA: Malaysian women’s doubles head coach Rosman Razak remains optimistic that his young shuttlers will continue improving with experience, but admitted there is still a significant gap to the top players.
The absence of national top pair Pealy Tan-M. Thinaah, due to the former’s injury, was felt at the Unifi Arena after all four Malaysian pairs ended their campaigns at the Malaysian Masters in the opening round yesterday.
Malaysia’s second women’s doubles pair, Carmen Ting-Ong Xin Yee saw their hopes dashed by Taiwan’s Hsieh Yi-en-Teng Chun-hsun as they fell 15-20, 20-22 on Tuesday. Although their run ended early, Rosman is confident the players will hone their skills with time as they compete more regularly in higher-level tournaments.
Young pair Low Zi Yu-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan fell short to Thailand Open Champions Bao Lijing-Cao Zihan, losing 18-21, 12-21 yesterday.
“I think we can see that we are clearly behind in terms of quality level, especially against the Chinese pair,” said Rosman on Zi Yu-Noraqilah’s match.
“The Chinese pair were a lot more dominant in that aspect. Our players tried to play at the level they are currently at, but we can see that we need to increase their intensity and skill level.”
Rosman added that Carmen-Xin Yee have catching up to do with their higher-ranked compatriots in Pearly-Thinaah, and that process is not always going to be smooth sailing.
“Although their level is still quite far from the top, they are in the process of going through trial and error. They are learning what pressure feels like, and that process has its ups and downs. We have to just keep going. That does not mean we accept defeat, but instead will continue learning from it.”
The other Malaysians pairs that exited in the opening round were Cheng Su Hui-Tan Zhing Hui, who fell 8-21, 12-21 to Japan’s Arisa Igarashi-Chiharu Shida, while Chong Jie Yu-Vanessa Ng lost 16-21, 17-21 to Taiwan’s Chen Yan-fei-Sun Liang-ching yesterday.
