PETALING JAYA: Independent shuttler Lee Zii Jia proved that he is still the country’s No. 1 men’s singles shuttler after storming into the semi-finals of the Australian Open. Despite his struggles, the world No. 17 Zii Jia rose to the occasion to narrowly triumph 17-21, 26-24, 21-19 over his much-improved former national teammate Ng Tze Yong...
PETALING JAYA: Independent player Lee Zii Jia (pic) finally won his first match under new coach Wong Tat Meng when he beat compatriot Leong Jun Hao in the first round of the Australia Open in Sydney yesterday. Zii Jia, the world No. 17, did not start the way he wanted as he had to come from...
PETALING JAYA: Surprise, surprise! Datuk Misbun Sidek looks set to return as the national junior singles coaching director after the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria offered him an opportunity to end his contract that runs until end of the year. But there’s a twist to the saga. Yesterday, Norza dropped a bombshell by...
PETALING JAYA: South Korean shuttler An Se-young is unstoppable right now. And that makes the women’s singles interesting and competitive but also adds immense pressure on all others in the fray to narrow the gap quickly, says Malaysia’s former All-England men’s singles champion Mohd Hafiz Hashim. Hafiz, who is now coaching India’s P.V. Sindhu, knows he has...
PETALING JAYA: Never take sides when you do not have a complete picture of the incident. This was the view expressed by former great Datuk James Selvaraj following the dismissal of Datuk Misbun Sidek from his position as the national junior singles coaching director. Even though Misbun has a contract that runs until the end of this...
PETALING JAYA: Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah suffered a blow ahead of the World Championships from Aug 21-27 in Copenhagen after crashing out in the first round of the Australian Open. The duo went down fighting 20-22, 21-17, 17-21 to China’s world No. 6 Zhang Shuxian-Zheng Yu in the women’s doubles event at Quaycentre in Sydney yesterday. Pearly-Thinaah held...
PETALING JAYA: National doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky’s (pic) job was spared as he had only taken over the junior squad five months ago. This is the response from Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) after recently ousted national junior development director Datuk Misbun Sidek said that he should not be the only one to be blamed...
PETALING JAYA: Taiwan men’s doubles pair Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin ended their two-year barren run on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) world tour when they captured the Japan Open in Tokyo yesterday – at the same venue where they were crowned Olympic champions in 2021. Lee Yang-Chi-lin’s success at the Yoyogi National Gimnasium 24 months ago was...
PETALING JAYA: The dark days are over for women’s doubles player Anna Cheong as she will be back in action with partner Teoh Mei Xing in the China Open in September. Anna, 25, suffered the dreaded anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture on her right leg in October last year and underwent surgery a month later, which...
PETALING JAYA: Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik gave one of their best performances this year to march into the quarter-finals of the Japan Open and emerged as the only survivors for Malaysia. The national men’s doubles pair swept aside Indonesia’s world No. 14 Shohibul Fikri-Bagas Maulana 21-12, 21-10 in the second round at the Yoyogi Gymnasium in...
