DEBUTANT Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan will finally get a taste of Asian Games action when she teams up with Low Zi Yu in the individual badminton competition starting today at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium.
Noraqilah, who missed the team event as she had yet to fully recover from a left ankle injury, has been cleared to play.
In the draw released yesterday, Noraqilah-Zi Yu will take on world No. 12 Hsu Yin-hui-Lin Jhih-yun in the first round and should head into the match with confidence after stunning the Taiwanese pair at the Taiwan Open in July.
They are, however, in the same quarter as second seeds Baek Ha-na-Lee So-hee of South Korea.
Zi Yu teamed up with Cheng Su Yin in the team quarter-final tie against South Korea and came close to upsetting former world No. 3 pair Jeong Na-eun-Kim Hye-jeong before losing.
Hopes are on Noraqilah and Zi Yu to strut their stuff as they will be playing without much pressure as the underdogs.
Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah face a tricky opener in the women’s doubles against world No. 9 pair Rachel Rose-Febi Setianingrum.
The clash will be a repeat of their SEA Games semi-finals in Thailand last December, which Pearly-Thinaah won.
They are in the same top half with top seeds Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning of China and Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto of Japan.
In the mixed doubles, Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jamie, who are making their third and final Asian Games appearance, will face Taiwan’s Yang Po-hsuan-Hu Li-fang.
They however are lumped together in the same quarter with top seeds Feng Yanzhe-Huang Dongping of China.
Chen Tang Jie-Su Yin have a first round meeting with Bangladesh’s Al-Amin Jumar-Urmi Akter but they too are in the same quarter in the bottom half of the draw with second seeds Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin of China.
