KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 — The Academy Badminton Malaysia’s (ABM) coaching director Rexy Mainaky feels two critical elements resulted in the country’s number one mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei losing to Japan’s Hiroki Midorikawa-Natsu Saito, 22-24, 14-21, in the second round of the 2024 Malaysia Open today.

Rexy said their failure to control their emotion and panicking at crucial moments was key to the defeat.

He added that Tang Jie-Ee Wei were also too eager to win points from their opponents during the match played at the Axiata Arena, here.

Tang Jie for example, could not provide the killer smash, the smash was not lethal enough and more importantly they panicked and could not control their emotion.

“On a number of occasions, their judgment at the back of the court was poor, they allowed the ball to drop, hoping to be called out and claim easy points. But at this level, there is no room for errors and cannot depend on judgments,” he told reporters here today.

The result today meant, the Malaysian pair, ranked number nine in the world, failed to match last year’s result of making it to the quarterfinals.

The loss was the second for Tang Jie-Ee Wei against the Japanese pair, ranked 13th in the world from their three meetings and the last time they managed to beat Hiroki-Saito was at the Bangladesh International Championships in 2022.

Meanwhile, men’s singles coach Datuk Tey Seu Bock said Ng Tze Yong who had to retire due to an injury while trailing 8-12 to Koki Watanabe of Japan in the first round yesterday, will undergo a medical checkup at the National Sports Institute, tomorrow.

“Yesterday, after the game the doctor had checked him but was not able to give a comprehensive detail of the injury. We need to make an appointment tomorrow for a further check up,” he said.

Speaking to reporters after retiring from the match, Tze Yong said he believes he could have suffered a back injury.

Tze Yong’s exit meant Malaysia will not have any representation in the men’s singles competition since Lee Zii Jia had already lost to Lu Guang Zu of China 21-16, 19-21, 15-21, on Tuesday. — Bernama