CHENGDU, May 1 — The national women singles shuttlers need to have a high fighting spirit if they want to challenge other players in future international competitions, said Akademi Badminton Malaysia director of coaching Rexy Mainaky.

Based on their performance in the 2024 Uber Cup here, he expressed his disappointment at their apparent lack of fighting spirit, leading to their failure to put up the expected resistance when facing higher-ranked players in China.

In fact, Rexy revealed that some players were "relieved” to have avoided training sessions earlier with the excuse of injuries.

"The way they think, they feel happy when they’re hurt, while others can be seen crying and regretting that they can’t play, but our players feel safe because they can skip training.

"If you can’t overcome yourself, how can you challenge other players?” he said to reporters after Malaysia defeated Australia 4-1 in their final Uber Cup Group B match here today.

Rexy urged them to emulate Spanish champion and Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin, who overcame two knee surgeries to return to the pinnacle of success by winning the 2024 All England title last March.

The Indonesian doubles specialist was also clearly disappointed with the performance of singles player Siti Nurshuhaini Azman, who conceded many easy points when getting crushed by world No. 20 player, Busanan Ongbamrungphan, 21-15, 21-8. Malaysia were beaten by 2018 runners-up Thailand 0-5 on Monday.

"Maybe it’s not just me, but other badminton fans are also disappointed. It’s hard to distinguish whether this was a performance by a Malaysian player or someone from Uganda. I have to be honest because Siti Nurshuhaini made no effort to return her opponent’s shots; we expected a defeat , but where’s the effort?” he said.

Apart from Siti Nurshuhaini, the other women singles shuttlers competing in this tournament included professional player Goh Jin Wei, K. Letshanaa, Wong Ling Ching and Siti Zulaikha Muhammad Azmi.

Jin Wei, Ling Ching and Siti Zulaikha each won once in their respective matches at the 2024 Uber Cup, all during Malaysia’s 4-1 win over Australia earlier today.

Meanwhile, the 56-year-old former Olympic champion noted that while the team put up a positive performance despite losing 1-4 to Taiwan in the opening tie, the Malaysian squad seemed overly respectful to Thailand, resulting in a 0-5 defeat last Monday.

"We hoped that they would enter the court with a ‘nothing to lose’ mentality, but the expectations appeared more evident in the match against Taiwan but were quite the opposite against Thailand,” he said.

Malaysia failed to qualify for the quarterfinals in this edition after losing to Taiwan and Australia. The last time the team reached the quarterfinals was in the 2010 edition.

Meanwhile, Rexy commended the performance of the third men’s singles player, Justin Hoh, who delivered an impressive performance by taking it to a deciding set before falling to Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke in the last Group D match of the 2024 Thomas Cup, last night.

Despite the significant gap in world rankings, the No. 233-ranked player did not give Gemke an easy time, with Gemke sweating throughout the 76-minute match before managing to beat him 13-21, 21-19, 13-21, allowing Denmark to defeat Malaysia 3-2 to top Group D.

Malaysia have already secured a place in the quarterfinals, beginning the 2024 Thomas Cup campaign with two 5-0 wins, defeating Hong Kong on Saturday and Algeria last Monday.

Denmark also started their campaign with 5-0 wins over Algeria (Saturday) and Hong Kong (Monday). — Bernama