Soniia feels Malaysia have Uber firepower

shuttler Soniia Cheah believes the Malaysian women’s team have enough firepower to reach the quarter-finals of the Uber Cup in Bangkok later this month.

The 25-year-old, who made her debut at the 2010 edition in Kuala Lumpur, is still optimistic though defending champions China and favourites Indonesia are in Malaysia’s group. The other team in Group D are France.

Soniia, who has been battling serious injuries since 2013, said: “Personally, I feel okay. I recovered from an ankle injury injury and am back on track, in terms of training.

“As for the Uber Cup, I believe in my teammates fully. All of us are working really hard together with our coaches to achieve our target of making the quarter-finals.

“Of course having China and Indonesia in the same group doesn’t make things easy, but we will give our best, because nothing is impossible.”

Apart from Soniia, the other women’s singles in the squad are former world junior champion Goh Jin Wei, former world junior runner-up Lee Ying Ying and S. Kisona.

In the women’s doubles, Malaysia will have to make do without Woon Khe Wei, who is still recovering from a knee injury.

In the absence of the 2014 Asian Games bronze medallist, Malaysia will rely on Khe Wei’s partner Vivian Hoo, Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean, Soong Fie Cho-Tee Jing Yi and Goh Yea Ching to come good in the doubles matches.

Malaysia have never gone past the quarter-finals in the Uber Cup. Their best result was in 2010 when they reached the last eight before going down 3-0 to Indonesia.