SHAH ALAM, Feb 13 — The Teoh Mei Xing-Anna Cheong pairing will need to prove their mettle if they are selected for the women’s second doubles at the 2022 Badminton Asian Team Championships (BATC), Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky said.
He said the 81st world-ranked pairing must award points for the national team, especially since India and Japan would not be fielding their strongest line-up in the meet from Feb 15-20 at the Setia City Convention Centre here.
"If they face India, they have to prove that winning the Syed Modi International Championship last month was no fluke and won on their best form,” he said when met at the team’s first official training session here today.
Pearly Tan-M.Thinaah will lead Mei Xing-Anna, Valeree Siow-Low Yeen Yuan and Go Pei Kee for the women’s doubles, while the singles slot will be represented by Eoon Qi Xuan, S. Kisona, Tan Zhing Yi, Siti Nurshuhaini Azman and Myisha Mohd Khairul.
The team, drawn in Group Y, will open the curtain against India on Tuesday, before completing the group stage schedule against Japan on Wednesday.
The former Olympic champion from Indonesia also did not want the men’s and women’s players to feel any pressure ahead of the tournament.
Rexy said it was his responsibility, singles coach director Wong Choong Hann and the coaching staff to ensure that players are at their best mental level and to help motivate each other ahead of the Thomas and Uber Cup qualifiers.
Commenting on the venue of the tournament, Rexy said there were a few problems with draft and other minor technicalities such as lighting, although he was confident those problems will be resolved.
Meanwhile, Organising Committee secretary Mohamad Nizam Marjugi said the organisers had to reduce the number of spectators from 1,000 originally to 200 following the recent spike in daily Covid-19 cases.
Mohamad Nizam said badminton fans, however, need to book the free tickets via a day before the match to catch the event. — Bernama
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