KUALA LUMPUR – Fixed mixed doubles pairings will be finalised before the 2023 Malaysia Open in January, in preparation for qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Hinting at this, Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky said regular pairings are important to collect points in the qualifying tournament series starting from May 1 to grab slots for the Olympic Games.
“It is true that we targeted Chen Tang Jie-Peck Yen Wei to reach the quarterfinals at the recent World Badminton Championships... as you know, they did not reach the target so we have to think about the possibility of changing the pairing.
“We also have to be realistic as we don’t have many female players, so we have to sit down with the coaches and take it to the management to make any decisions,” he said when met by reporters at Akademi Badminton Malaysia Bukit Kiara here yesterday.
The 2023 Malaysia Open will be held at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil here from January 10 to 15.
Rexy said that so far there has been no decision to pair back Valerie Siow with Tang Jie, who showed an encouraging performance in defeating Japanese pair Yuki Kaneko-Misaki Matsutomo, who are ranked 17th in the world, at the Malaysia Open last June.
For now, according to him, only two mixed pairs, Hoo Pang Roon-Toh Ee Wei (ranked 46th in the world) and Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See (83rd) will be sent to shoulder the country’s challenge at the Denmark Open which will take place from October 18 to 23. – Bernama, September 10, 2022
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