PETALING JAYA: Women's doubles shuttler Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan will have to wait a little longer to make her competitive return after being ruled out of the Japan Masters in Kumamoto, which begins on Tuesday (Nov 10).
National women's doubles head coach Rosman Razak said Noraqilah and her partner Low Zi Yu had been withdrawn from the tournament as the 19-year-old has yet to regain full fitness following a left ankle injury.
Although Noraqilah has made good progress in her recovery, Rosman is unwilling to take any risks by rushing her back into competition, especially with longer-term plans to help the pair qualify for higher-tier tournaments next year.
"She will make her return at the Hong Kong Open. Her recovery has been progressing very well and she has already resumed training," said Rosman.
"I would say there is a 90% chance that she will be ready for the Hong Kong Open.
"Hopefully, by next year, Zi Yu and Aqilah will be able to compete in higher-tier tournaments, including Super 1000, Super 750 and Super 500 events.
"At the moment, they sometimes find themselves on the waiting list, so we want to improve their ranking to ensure they can get into the main draw," added Rosman.
On a positive note, Rosman confirmed that Noraqilah's injury was not serious enough to require surgery.
Noraqilah first suffered the injury before leaving for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in September.
She was rested during the women's team event to give her more time to recover, but it was not enough to prevent an early exit when she made her Asian Games debut alongside Zi Yu in the individual competition.
The pair went down to Taiwan's Hsu Yin-hui-Lin Jhih-yun in the opening round.
With Noraqilah-Zi Yu missing the Japan Masters, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah will be Malaysia's sole representatives in the women's doubles event as they look to defend the title they won last year.
