Malaysia Masters: Women’s Doubles Campaign Over After First Round
KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 (Bernama) -- Malaysia’s interest in women’s doubles event came to a premature end as their last two hopes – Low Zi Yu-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan and Cheng Su Hui-Tan Zhing Hui – bowed out from the opening round of the Malaysia Masters 2026, here, today.
During the action in Unifi Arena, Bukit Jalil, here, China Masters 2026 runners-up Zi Yu-Noraqilah went down to China’s Bao Li Jing-Cao Zi Han, 21-18, 21-12 in 38 minutes.
Noraqilah admitted they lost focus in the second game after trailing 0-11, making it difficult for them to mount a comeback and forced the decider against the newly-crowned Thailand Open champions.
“China’s pair is quite good and they have more power of course than us. "We haven't reached the level of the duo who just won the Thailand Open last week. So, we need to improve," she told reporters when they met in the mixed zone.
In the meantime, Su Hui-Zhing Hui were outclassed by fourth seeds from Japan, Arisa Igarashi-Chiharu Shida, 8-21, 12-21.
Yesterday, two national women's doubles pair Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting and Chong Jie Yu-Vanessa Ng exited in the first round of the Super 500 tournament.
Xin Yee-Carmen, seventh seeds, lost unexpectedly to the Taiwanese pair of Hsieh Yi En-Teng Chun Hsun 15-21, 20-22 in 39 minutes.
Jie Yu-Vanessa were shown the exit by Chen Yan Fei-Sun Liang Ching of Taiwan 16-21, 17-21 in 33 minutes.
Previously, Malaysia were dealt with a huge blow as their main hope and national number one women’s doubles pair, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah withdrew from the Malaysia Masters 2026.
The Badminton Association of Malaysia via its Facebook post, stated that the decision was made due to an injury sustained by Pearly.
National Women's Doubles head coach Rosman Razak in a separate statement said it was still too early to allow Pearly to return to the court, even though her recovery is progressing well.
The Malaysia Masters 2026, which kicked off yesterday and continues until May 24, carries a total prize pool of USD500,000 (RM1.98 million).
-- BERNAMA
