PETALING JAYA: National singles coaching director Kenneth Jonassen has challenged his players to take down some of the big names at the World Championships in New Delhi from Aug 17-23.
The Dane does not want his charges to be content with merely putting up a good fight against higher-ranked opponents and believes they should have the ambition to cause a few upsets and go as far as possible.
With the World Championships bringing together the world’s best players, Jonassen believes there is no better stage for his charges to test themselves and show what they are capable of.
Malaysia will be represented by Leong Jun Hao and Justin Hoh in the men’s singles, while K. Letshanaa and Wong Ling Ching will compete in the women’s singles.
“I think these are the important times in a player’s career.
“Going into this championship, for any of the singles players, if you want to make a name for yourself, if you want to create something good, it goes through beating a seeded player. And that is the mindset we must come in with.
“If I want to achieve something, and we’ve prepared like you’re supposed to prepare for a major championship, it means we come in with ambition and it is to topple some seeded players.
“I hope for more than just a ‘good fight’. I hope that actually, we can create an upset or two.
“The mindset of all our players should be like that: ‘I go in with the belief that I’ve prepared well, and let me now test myself against the very best in the world and see if I can spring that upset.’
“If that is the mindset of the player, it’s also the ambition of us coaches for sure,” said Jonassen.
Jonassen also believes his charges have been lucky with the draw, with three of the four avoiding seeded opponents in the first rounds.
Jun Hao will take on Brazil’s world No. 61 Jonathan Matias, while Ling Ching, who will be making her World Championships debut, faces Peru’s world No. 158 Namie Miyahira.
Letshanaa will open her campaign against Uganda’s Fadilah Shamika Rafi.
Justin, however, faces a much tougher opening task against Taiwan’s All-England champion Lin Chun-yi.
“Overall we’ve been treated quite fairly. Being unseeded in this championship meant that, yeah, we are a little bit depending on the luck of things.
“And I think when three out of four of our players play unseeded players in the first rounds, I think we can say we are quite lucky overall,” he added.
