Women falter while men reach final against Hong Kong

A WRONG strategy saw Malaysia let slip a chance to win the women team’s gold after crashing out 0-2 to India in the semi-final at the Gelora Bung Karno Squash Stadium.

Malaysia settled for a bronze

– a far cry from the gold they won at the 2014 Incheon Games.

Reigning Asian singles champion Nicol David lost 10-12, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10, 9-11 to Joshna Chinnapa in the first match and Low Wee Wern (pic), who is making a comeback after a long injury lay-off, suffered a 2-11, 9-11, 7-11 defeat to Dipika Pallikal in the second game.

This is the first time that Malaysia women failed to win the team gold since the 2010 Guangzhou Games.

National team coach Peter Genever admitted the gamble to play Wee Wern in the second match ahead of women’s singles silver medallist S. Sivasangari did not yield the expected result.

“We were happy with Wee Wern’s form coming into this tournament but Dipika, who played in the singles event, was better. There was more pressure on Wee Wern as it was a must-win match,” said the Englishman.

“The order of play was fixed before the tournament begun, so we could not change. We didn’t expect Sivasangari to play so well here.

World No. 70 Wee Wern admitted she was not ready to play in a major tournament.

“We knew, it will be a close match, there was more pressure after we lost the first game. I’m not back to top form yet but as a team we did well to reach this stage,” said the Penangite.

Although disappointed she could not make it a double joy in her last Asian Games campaign, Nicol said Malaysia’s future looked good.

“It was close in my match. The Indian team played very well and Wee Wern tried hard too. We just lost to a very strong team in the end,” said Nicol.

“This bronze medal is still something to be proud off. The future looks bright for the Malaysian girls following their performance here and I’m proud of them.”

The men’s team, however, made up for the disappointment of the women’s team by checking into the final.

They have set up a meeting against Hong Kong after beating Pakistan 2-1 in the semi-final at the Gelora Bung Karno Squash Stadium yesterday.

World No. 40 Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan had no trouble defeating world No. 71 Tayyab Aslam 11-8, 11-6, 11-6 in a 31-minute in the first game while Ng Eain Yow overcame a slow start to beat Ahmad Israr 7-11, 11-8, 16-14, 11-6 in 44 minutes to seal the win.

The men have never won a gold in Asiad. Hong Kong, who boast the strongest three-man line-up of Max Lee, Leo Au and Yip Tsz Fung – all ranked in the world’s top 25 standings, will be the favourites in the final.