THE national men’s doubles pair of Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun aims to make a debut at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals later this year in Hangzhou, China.
According to Wei Chong, the mission is no mean feat considering that he and his partner need to maintain their ranking in the top eight to qualify if they wish to participate in the tournament.
Therefore, he said, he and Kai Wun need to at least qualify for the quarter-finals in the remaining four tournaments of this year in order to realise that dream.
“We have never qualified (for BWF World Tour Finals). So hopefully we can qualify this year.
“There are four more tournaments, the Arctic Open (in Finland), Denmark Open, Japan Masters and China Masters. So if you want to qualify you have to at least reach the quarter-finals for these four tournaments,“ he said after the national team’s training session at the Academy of Badminton Malaysia (ABM) here today.
According to the format of the BWF World Tour Finals, only the top eight players in the qualifying rankings (of five individual events) can compete in the tournament.
Based on the latest update of the BWF World Tour rankings yesterday, the country’s leading men’s doubles Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik is ranked 15th.
At this point, China Open winners Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani and Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun are in the best position to qualify as they are ranked fifth and seventh respectively.
In other developments, the national men’s doubles pair of Choong Hon Jian-Muhammad Haikal Nazri has officially withdrawn from participating in the Arctic Open next week after Hon Jian suffered a back injury during training last week.
According to Hon Jian, he will also focus on one event only, which is men’s doubles.
“If I focus only on men’s doubles, I don’t have to think much. It will also benefit my partner (Muhammad Haikal) after this,” he said.
Hon Jian previously competed in two events, namely men’s doubles and mixed doubles with his partner Go Pei Kee.
