TheStar PETALING JAYA: National chief coach Yap Kim Hock has a loud and clear message to the badminton team ahead of their opening Sudirman Cup mixed team championships Division Two Group A tie against Taiwan in Beijing today. Kim Hock, while keeping the opening line-up close to his chest, said that all the players were aware of their responsibilities and he did not want to use the excuse that the women were still the weak link of the team for a failure. “Whoever is fielded will have to try their best to win their matches,” he said in a telephone interview after the morning’s training session. “It is a tie we cannot afford to lose. I plan to field the best line-up and the players will have to go all out to chalk up a win.” Malaysia have set their sights on gaining promotion to Division One. To move up to the top flight, they have to win their group, comprising Holland and Russia, as well, and go on to beat the winners of the other group, which has Japan, Singapore, Germany and Ukraine. On paper, Malaysia appear to have an edge over Taiwan. The Malaysian women have improved considerably over the last two years and they can now be relied on to deliver the points. A piece of good news for the Malaysians when they first arrived at the competition venue on Sunday was to learn about the absence of the top two Taiwanese women’s singles players – Cheng Shao-chieh and Huang Chia-chi, who are ranked 17th and 44th in the world respectively. Taiwan are expected to field Huang Chia-hsin, who is only ranked 104th in the world. And Malaysia can bank on Wong Mew Choo to clinch a point from the match. “We should win the men’s singles and doubles matches but I expect it to be 50-50 in the women’s doubles and mixed doubles,” said Kim Hock. Malaysian top women’s doubles pair of Chin Eei-Hui-Wong Pei Tty, who are ranked seventh in the world, will have to live up to their billing against 14th ranked Chien Yu-chin-Cheng Wen-hsing. Kim Hock is expected to send in Koo Kien Keat to partner Pei Tty for the opening mixed doubles match and they are expected to play against the world number 14, Tsai Chia-hsin-Cheng Wen-hsing. At the last championships in Eindhoven two years ago, Malaysia beat Taiwan 3-2. They went on to beat fancied Japan 3-2 to top the group. But in the promotion playoff, Malaysia were beaten 2-3 by Hong Kong.
