KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 16 (Bernama) -- Just shy of a perfect 10.
That is Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) coaching director Rexy Mainaky's assessment of national top mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei following their remarkable feat of finishing runners-up at the World Tour Finals (WTF) 2024 in Hangzhou, China, on Sunday.
Rexy said Tang Jie-Ee Wei played with focus from day one of the annual season-finale in Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Gymnasium and did not waste their chance to clear the group stage.
“After that (the group stage), they played with more confidence and believed they could go far,” he told Bernama when contacted today.
The current world number eight duo created history by becoming the first Malaysians to grace the final since WTF kicked off in 2018.
However, their bid to clinch the WTF 2024 title was dashed by home pair and Paris 2024 Olympic Games gold medallists Zheng Si Wei-Huang Ya Qiong, who won 21-18, 14-21, 21-17 in the final.
Rexy hoped to see Tang Jie-Ee Wei maintain their focus during training by constantly working on areas that need improvement.
The Indonesian gave a score of seven out of 10 to both national men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and national women’s doubles duo Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah after they failed to advance to the last four.
He said that despite winning the first two matches and appearing to be on track to top Group B, Aaron-Wooi Yik lost their edge in the final match against Indonesia's Sabar Karyaman Gutama-Moh Reza Pahlevi.
The world number five suffered a stunning 16-21, 16-21 loss to Sabar-Moh Reza in their first ever meeting.
The result saw them finish third in Group B and thus failed to clear the group stage for the fifth time (2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024).
Aaron-Wooi Yik opened their campaign on a bright note when they saw off He Ji Ting-Ren Xiang Yu of China 21-17, 18-21, 21-15 and beat Indonesian pair Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto 19-21, 21-14, 21-15.
As for Pearly-Thinaah, Rexy said the world number six duo should have beaten Japan's top pair Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida in their opening Group A match.
The Malaysians let slip their first game win of 21-13 and went down to Matsuyama-Shida 17-21, 18-21 in the next two games.
Rexy also suspected that Pearly-Thinaah could not enjoy their game in the second match, which saw them losing to India’s Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand Pullela 19-21, 19-21.
He said even though they managed to regain the momentum in the final match, it was too little too late as they suffered another defeat to world number one Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning of China 9-21, 21-18, 18-21 to return home winless.
Malaysian professional men's doubles pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani emerged as runners-up in the tournament, losing 17-21, 21-17, 11-21 to world number three Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark in the final.
-- BERNAMA
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