KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky is clearly furious with the excuse given by men’s doubles pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani following their elimination in the second round of the Singapore Open 2022 yesterday.

German Open 2022 champions Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin, who were the sixth seeds, went down 21-18, 22-24, 18-21 to India’s M.R. Arjun-Dhruv Kapila at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Rexy described their excuse of being tired as "not making sense” because he felt that they had sufficient rest after crashing out to Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto 14-21, 20-22 in the first round of the Malaysia Masters 2022 last week.

"We placed high hopes on Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin in the Singapore Open but, unfortunately, they flopped. Based on the report by coach Tan Bin Shen, they seemed to put themselves under pressure and made untold mistakes.

"I can’t accept the fact that they are tired. That excuse is nonsense because they lost early in the Malaysia Masters, so how can they be tired?” he told reporters after the training session here today.

Apart from being disappointed with the performance of Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin, the Indonesian doubles specialist was also far from pleased with the display of all the country’s doubles pairs, with none of them making it to the quarter-finals of the Singapore Open 2022.

He was clearly unhappy with the performance of youngsters Wan Arif Wan Junaidi-Muhammad Haikal Nazri, who adopted a more defensive approach instead of their usual attacking game en route to losing 15-21, 21-19, 17-21 to Singapore’s Hee Yong Kai Terry-Loh Kean Hean in the second round.

The 54-year-old coach was also displeased with the display shown by another young pair, Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun, who failed to put up much of a fight en route to going down 17-21, 15-21 to second seeds Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia.

Asked about plans to strengthen the country’s doubles pairs, Rexy said he planned to work on their physical fitness as well as help them to think on their feet during matches.

"I also want to focus on raising their self-confidence... skill-wise I am not too concerned,” he added. — Bernama