Bright Future For National Women's Badminton Squad After Uber Cup Showing

From Amiril Muttaqien Meketar

HORSENS, (Denmark) May 1 (Bernama) -- The national women's badminton squad has shown great potential for stronger performances in future editions following a positive campaign at the 2026 Uber Cup held at Forum Horsens.

National Coaching Director Rexy Mainaky expressed his admiration for the team's fighting spirit. With a squad composed of 50% young players, Malaysia managed to qualify for the quarterfinals of the prestigious tournament for the first time in 16 years, putting up a brave challenge despite falling 0-3 to defending champions China yesterday.

"The majority of the squad are young players; they were able to play with a 'nothing to lose' attitude and showed a positive performance against China (in the quarterfinals yesterday)," he said in a video shared by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) today.

"K. Letshanaa, as the first singles, faced the All England champion Wang Zhi Yi, and our debut pair Ong Xin Yee and Carmen Ting managed to compete against the world No. 1 pair, Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning. They were very positive," he added.

Yesterday, Malaysia began the quarterfinals on a difficult note when national women's singles player K. Letshanaa (world No. 33) put up a fierce fight before narrowly losing 17-21, 18-21 to world number two Wang Zhi Yi in a match lasting 47 minutes.

The hope to level the tie almost materialised through debutants Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting, who displayed a courageous performance against the world's number-one pair, Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning, before going down 14-21, 21-16, 13-21 in a 79-minute battle.

China secured their spot in the semifinals in the third match when their second singles player, Chen Yu Fei (world No. 4), defeated Wong Ling Ching 21-10, 21-10 in 36 minutes.

Meanwhile, Rexy stated that it is still too early to suggest that Xin Yee-Carmen, or the other young pair of Low Zi Yu-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan, can reach the level of the nation's top pair and world number two, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah.

"It is too early to say they can reach the level of Pearly-Thinaah because what they still need to do in the coming years is take care of their mental and psychological strength," he said.

Zi Yu-Noraqilah (world No. 143) had previously turned heads when they shocked the world's seventh-ranked Japanese pair, Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi, 21-17, 12-21, 21-19, during the final Group B match last Monday.

This marks Malaysia's fourth quarterfinal appearance in the tournament, matching their best achievement from the 2004, 2008, and 2010 editions.

The national squad began their Group B campaign with a 3-2 victory over Turkiye before defeating South Africa 5-0 to confirm their place in the quarterfinals. They finished the group stage as runners-up of Group B after losing 1-4 to six-time champions, Japan.

The 2026 Uber Cup, which began on April 24, runs until this Sunday (May 3).

-- BERNAMA