Young shuttler Low Zi Yu stays focused on girls’ doubles with Noraqilah despite winning the Badminton Asia Junior Championships mixed doubles title with Ahmad Redzuan.
THE mixed doubles success with Ahmad Redzuan Zulwaqqarizal at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships (BAJC) 2026 in Yatsushiro, Japan, has not altered young shuttler Low Zi Yu’s decision to prioritise her partnership with Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan in girls’ doubles.
Zi Yu said she has not given much thought to either follow in the footsteps of World Championships mixed doubles defending champions Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei or the opportunity to feature in higher-ranked tournaments with Ahmad Redzuan in the future.
“I haven’t thought about it (following in Tang Jie-Ee Wei’s) footsteps as we need to look at what are our coaches’ plans. For now, I just want to focus on doing the best with Noraqilah,” she told reporters at Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) here today.
On Sunday (July 5), the second-seeded Ahmad Redzuan-Zi Yu overcame China’s Zheng Wei Gang-Li Meng Han 21-15, 22-20 in the mixed doubles final of the BAJC 2026 for Malaysia’s first title since Leong Jun Hao emerged as the boy’s singles champion in the 2017 edition.
The victory also saw Ahmad Redzuan-Zi Yu become the first national mixed doubles pair to capture the continental junior title since Tan Wee Kiong-Woon Khe Wei last achieved the feat in 2007.
Apart from her mixed doubles victory with Ahmad Redzuan, Zi Yu also did well to reach the girls’ doubles semi-finals with Genevie Lim at the BAJC 2026.
Commenting on her success with Ahmad Redzuan, the 15-year-old Zi Yu said she is satisfied with her achievements so far considering that they only trained together for a short time.
Zi Yu, however, expects to face tougher challenges when she and Noraqilah compete in the 2026 Taiwan Open from July 28-Aug 2.
Zi Yu is a two-time BWF World Junior Championships girls’ doubles runner-up, having won silver with Dania Sofea Zaidi in 2024 and Noraqilah in 2025.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Redzuan described their success in the BAJC 2026 mixed doubles final as “hard earned”, especially when they came under tremendous pressure after finding themselves trailing 6-12 at one stage in the second game before staging a magnificent fightback.
“It was tough but we gave it our all. The second game put us under more pressure but, Alhamduillah, we prevailed,” he said.
