Dubai: Malaysia has been drawn to play China in the 2023 Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championship (BAMTC) quarter-finals after failing to emerge as the champion of Group B following a 1-4 defeat to India on Thursday.
World No. 4 Lee Zii Jia put up a strong fight against World No. 9 HS Prannoy of India in the opening singles. Lee was trailing 3-10 in the decider but fought hard to level the score at 23-23. Unfortunately, Prannoy managed to score two straight points after that to beat Lee 18-21, 21-18, 25-23, and to give India a 1-0 lead.
In the women’s singles match that followed, Malaysia decided to play World No. 168 Wong Ling Ching instead of World No. 31 Goh Jin Wei. And as expected, World No. 9 PV Sindhu beat Wong 21-13, 21-17 to extend India’s lead to 2-0.
With Malaysia trailing 0-2, its reigning men’s doubles world champions – Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik managed to give Malaysia a much needed one point by beating scratch pair – Dhruv Kapila/Chirag Shetty 21-16, 21-10.
Nevertheless, Malaysia lost the tie with an overall score of 1-3 after the World No. 5 women’s doubles pair – Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan committed too many unforced errors to go down to Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand Pullela 21-23, 15-21.
In the last match of the tie, the World No. 48 mixed doubles pair – Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei lost to World No. 19 Ishaan Bhatnagar/Tanisha Crasto of India 19-21, 21-19, 16-21.
In a draw conducted after the group stage, the Group B runners-up Malaysia have been pitted with Group A champions China.
Here’s The 2023 Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championship (BAMTC) Quarter-Final Draw:
Korea vs. Indonesia
Thailand vs. Japan
India vs. Hong Kong China
China vs. Malaysia
