Letshanaa shuts out rankings to focus on court
SHAH ALAM: Women’s singles shuttler K. Letshanaa refuses to think too much about the higher rankings of her opponents. Instead, she prefers to focus on her performance on the court at the 2024 Asia Team Badminton Championships (BATC) which kicked off yesterday.
Ranked 56th in the world, Letshanaa said her priority, if selected by the coaching staff to compete in the biennial championship, is to contribute valuable points to the national team.
“Let’s not think about rankings because when you do, you feel stressed and pressured because if you are lowly-ranked you may feel like you are not good enough to compete in this tournament.
“When it comes to the court, it’s a player against a player. You compete against each other, not against the ranking or the level. When you do your best, you can cause an upset,” she told reporters at the Setia City Convention Centre, Shah Alam, yesterday.
Letshanaa, who won the Uganda International Challenge title in 2023, hopes to tame the drifts of the Convention Centre arena to adjust to the environment during matches.
Meanwhile, the women’s squad captain M. Thinaah refused to put any pressure on her teammates and hoped that all plans from the coaching staff would run smoothly on match day.
The women’s squad will feature Goh Jin Wei, Letshanaa, Wong Ling Ching, Siti Nurshuhaini Azman, Thinaah, Pearly Tan, Teoh Mei Xing, Go Pei Kee, Low Yeen Yuan and Tan Zhing Yi.
Malaysia, drawn in Group Y, will face the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Feb 14 and Thailand on Feb 15.