Malaysia Take 6th Spot In Suhadinata Cup After Losing 0-3 TO South Korea

ALOR SETAR (Kedah, Malaysia), April 11 (Bernama) -- Malaysia took the sixth spot in the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships 2014 (Suhadinata Cup) at the Sultan Abdul Halim Stadium here Friday, after going down 0-3 to South Korea in the play-off match. Credit should be given, nevertheless, to the Malaysian juniors, who displayed fighting spirit as they bowed out to their more experienced opponents. At sixth spot, Malaysia are two places behind Thailand, while defending champions South Korea only managed the fifth spot. Malaysian juniors head coach Zhou Kejian expressed satisfaction with the team's performance and said it was good for the young players to gain experience through matches. "For today's match, we sent in the fresh players, especially in the men's singles," he said. Tan Jia Wei staged a comeback in the second set before going down 11-21, 21-16, 16-21. The 15-year-old won the second set by using his drop shots and jumping smashes to trap Lee, and dragged the game to the rubber. "The Korean levelled 15-15 in the third set and increased speed and attacked more and Jia Wei lost his tempo. Overall, it was good for him to be in the match," Zhou said. "Actually, we listed the fresh players today to see the gap between our players and the Korean players, and they played quite well with a high level of fighting spirit although they knew it will be a tough game for them," he told reporters after the match. The Malaysian mixed doubles pair of Sim Guo Zheng/Eng Pui Yee was easily defeated 7-21, 13-21 by Kim Jae Hwan/Kong Hee Yong. Zhou said that overall, for the team performance, the Malaysian juniors achieved their target to clinch at least the fifth or sixth placing in the tournament. He said that for the individual event, which starts next week, the target was to place emphasis on the men's singles to at least enter the quarter-final. --BERNAMA