KUALA LUMPUR: Pearly Tan-Toh Ee Wei must handle pressure better if they want a shot at a World Championships medal in November.
Yesterday (Saturday), the national girls’ doubles failed to capitalise on their experience at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships, when they went down tamely 21-12, 21-16 to Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma-Ribka Sugiarto in the final.
The defeat, extended Malaysia’s long wait for a title in the girls doubles event, since the tournament’s inception in 1997.
National junior chief coach, Kwan Yoke Meng, admitted that Pearly-Ee Wei crumbled under pressure, despite going up against a scratch pair.
“Pearly-Ee Wei were too tense today (Sunday). They succumbed to the pressure and couldn’t play their game.
“However, credit must be given to the Indonesian pair, who played so freely. Backed by home support, they played so well.
“As for our players, this is a learning curve for them. If they want to stand on the podium at the world juniors or even win major titles, they must be able to play and perform under pressure,” said Yoke Meng.
Yoke Meng, added that the mix of young and senior players together has benefited the squad, and they will now be looking forward to bouncing back at the World Juniors.
“If our players realise what went wrong and work hard to fix it, then we can do well at the World Juniors.”
Earlier last week, Malaysia upset last year’s champions, South Korea 3-2 in the team event quarter-finals, before going down 3-0 to Japan in the semi-finals.
FINAL RESULTS — Boys singles: Lakshya Sen (Ind) bt Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Tha) 21-19, 21-18;
Doubles: Di Zijian-Wang Chang (Chi) bt Liang Weikeng-Shang Yichen (Chn) 18-21, 24-22, 21-19;
Girls singles: Wang Zhiyi (Chn) bt Zhou Meng (Chn) 21-9, 21-18;
Doubles: Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma-Ribka Sugiarto (Ina) bt Pearly Tan-Toh Ee Wei 21-12, 21-16;
Mixed doubles: Guo Xinwa-Liu Xuanxuan (Chn) bt Wang Chan-Jeong Na Un (Kor) 15-21, 21-19, 21-15.