KUALA LUMPUR – National doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky was unhappy with the umpire during the women’s doubles quarterfinals match between national women’s doubles shuttler Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah and Japanese duo Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirato at the Axiata Arena today.
Despite Pearly-Thinaah winning the match and booking a semifinal spot, Rexy was not pleased with the way the umpire enforced the rules.
“I questioned the umpire on why he reprimanded Thinaah. He said it was because she threw her racquet.
“But she did not do it in a way that would have been considered a misconduct. So, I told the umpire that he was wrong,” said the 1996 Olympic gold medallist.
After winning the second set, Thinaah let go of her racquet with force, expressing her feeling of coming back from a set down to force the match into a rubber set.
That was not all Rexy had to complain about, as the gruelling third set saw a few long rallies that were taking a toll on the players from both sides.
With the rallies seeming to compete with yesterday’s potentially record-breaking 211-shot rally, the Japanese coach had already received multiple warnings to not communicate with their players while the shuttle was active.
However, this kept occurring midway through the third set, leading the umpire to stop the game while the shuttlers were exchanging shots.
This frustrated Rexy, who later abruptly went to have a word with a match official.
“This is an intense match, and the players are tired. But the umpire stopped the game because the Japanese coach was talking during the rally,” he added.
Rexy was displeased that the umpire paused an active play.
Although it was the right thing to do, he said given the long duration of the match and the players being visibly winded, the umpire could have let the point play out.
“This is the first time I have experienced something like this.
“Badminton is too stiff; players have no freedom because they have to follow the rules to the tee, but the rules are one-sided,” he said.
Commenting on the match itself, Rexy said it was no longer about feeding Pearly-Thinaah tactics in the second set.
“We weren’t talking about tactics anymore in the second set. We know they are tired, so we just kept on supporting and encouraging them,” he said.
Pearly-Thinaah took an hour and 50 minutes to dismantle their Japanese opponents in the quarterfinals today.
They will face South Korea’s Jeong Ne-eun-Kim Hye-jeong in the semifinals tomorrow. – The Vibes, May 26, 2023
