KUALA LUMPUR: Top national number one women’s doubles shuttler Pearly Tan is not discouraged if she and her partner M. Thinaah are not included in the squad for the 2024 Uber Cup to be held in Chengdu, China from April 27 to May 5.
Pearly prefers to look at it from a positive angle, saying they could instead focus on preparing for the main mission of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris from July 26 to Aug 11.
“It is the coach’s decision whether he wants (us) to go (to Chengdu) or not. Either way is fine. If we don’t go, we have longer training (for the 2024 Olympic Games),” she said at a training session here today.
On Tuesday (March 26), Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) coaching director Rexy Mainaky did not rule out the possibility that Pearly-Thinaah might be left out of the 2024 Uber Cup squad to help them focus on preparations for the Olympic Games.
However, Rexy said nothing was certain as the coaching line-up first needs to get the opinion of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) management before announcing the final line-up.
Malaysia, who have never won the Uber Cup and seeded 10th in Chengdu, can expect a tricky path in this edition as they are drawn in Group B with fourth seeds Thailand, sixth seeds Taiwan and Australia.
The 24-year-old Pearly, though, is more concerned with the tough task that awaits her and Thinaah after they were drawn to meet eighth-seeded Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara of Japan in the opening round of the 2024 Badminton Asia Championships (BAC) in Ningbo, China, from April 9-14.
Although the Japanese pair are ranked eighth, it is the 13th-ranked Malaysians who hold the edge in their head-to-head record, having won three of their past four meetings.
Meanwhile, national men’s doubles player Goh Sze Fei admitted to feeling the pressure when he and partner Nur Izzuddin Rumsani are set to open the 2024 BAC campaign against defending world champions and second seeds Kang Min Hyuk-Seo Seung Jae of South Korea.
“We have to handle the pressure… we can’t think too much, we’ll just have to discuss with the coach on what strategy to use and then try our best,” he said. –Bernama
