Rexy doesn’t expect much from women’s shuttlers in Uber Cup

national coaching director Rexy Mainaky said earlier this week that the team have to be realistic with their Uber Cup expectations next month, his pessimism does hold some merit.

The lack of depth in the women’s singles department continued to be exposed when K. Letshanaa and Wong Ling Ching, the country’s second and third-ranked shuttlers respectively, failed to perform well even at the ongoing Thailand International Challenge - a sixth-tier tournament on the Badminton World Federation circuit.

On Thursday, world No. 67 and second seed Letshanaa was knocked out by world No. 206 Chiara Marvella Handoyo of Indonesia with a 21-18, 21-15 defeat. Ling Ching suffered the embarrassment of being beaten by a Vietnamese opponent.

World No. 72 and fourth seed Ling Ching went down 21-14, 21-15 to world No. 183 Vu Thi Trang, who like Chiara, made the main draw through Tuesday’s qualifiers.

This development is certainly cause for concern given that Letshanaa and Ling Ching are expected to fill in the duties as second and third singles during the Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu from April 28 to May 5.

These two players have not yet delivered creditable results to date. Letshanaa has not even reached a quarter-final in five tournament starts, while Ling Ching fared just a little better with a sole quarter-final outing at the Vietnam International Challenge two weeks ago.

Ling Ching failed to win a match in the other two, losing in the first round of the Thailand Masters Super 300 and China Masters Super 100.

Women’s singles coach K. Yogendran offered no excuses and acknowledged the disappointing performance in Thailand.

“I am deeply disappointed with our performance in Thailand. I would like to extend my apologies to all our badminton fans. The players themselves are also disappointed,” Yogendran said.

“But we have convened and identified areas for improvement in our training regimen before the Uber Cup. We will strive to deliver a better performance in the upcoming tournament.”

The odds are heavily stacked against Malaysia in their bid to secure a top-two finish and qualify for the knockout stage from Group B, which includes powerhouses Thailand, Taiwan, and Australia.

In the tournament’s history, Malaysia have only reached the quarter-finals on three occasions – in 2004, 2008 and 2010.