RACHEL WILL BE ON THE BALL IN GOLD COAST

PETALING JAYA: Four years ago, Rachel Arnold (pic) was thrown in at the deep end when she was given a taste of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Then, the 18yearold Rachel didn’t fare well in the women’s doubles with Vanessa Raj and mixed doubles with Valentino Bong.

The world No. 52, however, believes she is better prepared for a second Commonwealth Games outing in Gold Coast from April 415.

Rachel, who turns 22 on April 16, will compete in one event – the women’s doubles with world No. 45 S. Sivasangari.

“We didn’t have the best prepa ration four years ago. We were just told to play in the doubles and ended up getting chopped a fair bit,” said Rachel.

“A lot has changed since the last outing and I’m feeling quite confident about my preparation.

“Our doubles training is more consistent this time. I’ve had more than three weeks of focused doubles trainingwith Sivasangari.

“I believe that our partnership will come good even though we’re both rather similar attackminded players.

“Sivasangari is good at slowing the game down. We’ll take it one match at a time but we’re ready to go,” added Rachel.

RachelSivasangari, who are seeded ninth, have their work cut out as they are drawn in Group A with top seeds Joelle King Amanda LandersMurphy of New Zealand and eighth seeds Sarah CardwellChristine Nunn of Australia.

With only the top two pairs making the quarterfinals, RachelSivasangari have a straightforward task of beating CardwellNunn to earn their lasteight spot.

A bonus for Rachel is the competition for doubles only starts on April 10.

The Malaysian squad, with the exception of Nicol David who is already in Australia, departs for Gold Coast today.