BAM Needs To Arrest Decline Of Malaysian Women Squad

COPENHAGEN (Denmark), Aug 30 (Bernama) -- The 2014 BWF World Badminton Championships, held here, saw no Malaysian women players qualifying for the third round of the tournament. Clearly, there were grave weaknesses which needed to be addressed if they were to match the top world players from China, Denmark, Japan or South Korea. Several national women players when met by Bernama admitted that they needed to look into many aspects of weaknesses such as being nervous when facing higher ranking players, lack of zeal to win as well as poor mental and physical condition as among the long list of weaknesses. National women singles player, Tee Jing Yi admitted she lacked confidence when facing players ranked higher than her. The 35th world ranked player lost 18-21, 21-16 and 10-21 to ninth seed, Caroline Marin of Spain in round two on Wednesday. "Higher ranking players such as Carolina has good court control and was fast to kill any floating shots at the net," she said. National women doubles player Vivian Hoo Kah Mun in sharing Jing Yi's views, said players from several Asian countries such as China were far ahead in tactics. The player from Kuala Lumpur however commended the performance of several national women players in the championships despite having had to meet the best players in the world. "There are many aspects we need to improve, after this we have to meet our coach on the best measures to overcome our weaknesses," she said. Hoo, who partnered Woon Khe Wei, lost to 15th seed, Line Damkjaer Kruse and Marie Roepke of Denmark, 16-21, 21-11 and 10-21 in the second round on Wednesday. Apart from the two women national players, the remaining women players such as Sannatasah Saniru (women singles); sisters Ng Hui Lin/Ng Hui Ern, Lee Meng Yean/Lim Yin Loo as well as Amelia Alicia Anscelly and Soong Fie Cho in the women's double crashed out and returned home earlier. The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) should be looking at boosting the women's national squad after the world championship. The achievements of Malaysian women players have been on a roller coaster in the past 20 years and with the rise of other countries, Malaysia appeared to have fallen far behind in recent times. --BERNAMA