She’s back for more
Kisona returns to happy hunting ground for asia Team meet
The fond memories came flooding back when national women’s singles shuttler S. Kisona arrived in Manila for the Asia Team Championships.
Just two months ago in the Philippines, the 21-year-old had surprised everyone by winning the SEA Games gold medal.
Kisona is back for more – and this time with a mission to help Malaysia finish among the top four team at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum to win the right to play in the Uber Cup Finals in Aarhus, Denmark from May 16-24.
“It’s nice to be back in Manila, this place holds a special place in my heart having won the SEA Games last December,” said the world No. 106.
The others in the team are Soniia Cheah, Goh Jin Wei, Eoon Qi Xuan, Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean, Pearly Tan Koong Le-M. Thinaah and Yap Cheng Wen.
“Hopefully, my team and I will enjoy another great week here,” said Kisona.
“Winning the SEA Games gold is in the past, I’m focusing on the new challenge ahead of me. I’ll try to build on it.”
It will be Kisona’s third major team event appearance having previously played as third singles in the Asia Team Championships in Alor Setar and Uber Cup Finals in Bangkok in 2018.
She won all her matches, which include a notable win was against Ruselli Hartawan in Malaysia’s 2-3 defeat to Indonesia in the group stage – a feat she repeated in the SEA Games women’s singles final.
Kisona is convinced she had trained well in the last two months, which includes a fruitful two-week stint in Bangkok where she got to train alongside Thai star Ratchanok Intanon recently.
“I’m physically and mentally prepared. There were assignments for me in January, so I had ample of time to work on many areas of my game in training,” she said.
“I can’t wait to put what I have learned to practice. That’s why I’m so looking forward to this week.”
With Hong Kong out of this week’s action due to a travel restriction imposed by the Philippines government, the Group W are left with just Malaysia and Japan.
On paper, it looks tough for Malaysia to even steal a point from the reigning Uber Cup champions, but Kisona aims to defy the odds if she gets to play, most probably against world No. 19 Aya Ohori – if the tie goes into the deciding match.
“I’ve played Ohori twice at junior level seven years ago. She’s two years older, but back then I was able to give her a run of money. Let’s see where I stand against her now,” she said.