Cheah, Kisona gain invaluable experience

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian women's singles shuttlers Soniia Cheah and S. Kisona may have lost to their opponents at the opening round of Yonex Thailand Open Badminton Tournament at the Impact Arena in Bangkok on Wednesday, but they both believe they have gained invaluable experience that will help them become better players.

According to Cheah, who is the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games mixed team silver medallist, her 15-21 and 12-21 defeat to the seventh seed, An Se Young of South Korea, served as the best lesson to improve her performance for the Toyota Thailand Open which is scheduled to commence from Jan 19 to 24 at the same venue.

“My opponent managed to control the rhythm of the match better than me, and it was kind of jitter since it was my first match (after not playing for some time due to Covid-19), but I do hope to get my rhythm back in the next tournament,” Cheah was quoted as saying in a post-match video interview by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

The video was made available to Bernama.

Sharing the sentiment was Cheah's compatriot, S. Kisona who was delighted to be given a chance to play in the tournament following the withdrawal of Thailand's player Nitchaon Jindapol due to an injury.

The 2019 Philippines SEA Games gold medallist said that despite losing straight-set 15-21 and 1521 to the world number 20th Saina Nehwal of India in the first round, she was happy with her performance at the US$1 million (RM4.042 million) tournament.

“I tried to play my best to see how far I can go since this is my first tournament after not playing for a while (due to Covid-19),” she said.

“I think Saina played well and she is one of my idols. It was a good experience to get a chance to play against her,” Kisona added.

The defeat by both players saw Malaysia had no representatives left in the BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament. - Bernama