It is believed to be the first time that this many Malaysians have made it to the annual series, which began in 2018. They will feature in four out of five categories – excluding women’s singles – in the championships to be held at the Hangzhou Olympics Sports Centre Gymnasium from Dec 11 to 15.
None who played earlier came home with a title. The question is: can Malaysia break the duck this time around?
China tops the list of players with 14 while Indonesia has 10, Japan nine, Taiwan seven, Denmark, Thailand and South Korea three each and Hong Kong and India two each.
The Malaysians travelling to Hangzhou are men’s singles player Lee Zii Jia, men’s doubles pairs Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani and Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M Thinaah, and mixed doubles pairs Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Jemie Lai and Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei.
The championships will see the cream of the world’s badminton players vying for the US$2.5 million (RM11.1 million) prize money. Only the top eight players in the WTF’s ranking list from each category have qualified for the event, with the number limited to two from each country in the respective categories.
Soon Huat-Shevon are seeded second in their category while Tang Jie-Ee Wei are the third seeds. Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin are number four in the men’s doubles, with Aaron-Wooi Yik below them at number seven.
Pearly-Thinaah are number five in the women’s doubles category list of qualifiers.
Based on the seedings, the best bet for a podium finish appears to be one of the two mixed doubles pairs, as they will not be in the same group. Under the WTF format, the eight players will be split into two groups according to seedings, which means that the two Malaysian pairs will be placed separately.
The group matches will be played in a round-robin format before the top two winners from each group qualify for the semi-finals leading to the elimination rounds.
Possible title hopes
Based on the performance of the two mixed doubles pairs this year, there is hope that at least one of them will make it to the final and go on to win the title.
There has been a positive change since the appointment of renowned two-time former mixed doubles world champion Nova Widianto as the national coach.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei could prove to be the dark horse for the mixed doubles title if their recent performance is anything to go by.
As for the two-time Olympic bronze medallists Aaron-Wooi Yik – who failed to progress beyond the group stage at their previous appearances in 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023 – their path to the semi-finals may be eased by the absence of the world’s top two pairs, who failed to qualify.
They are China’s Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang and South Korea’s Kang Min Hyuk-Seo Seung Jae.
Pearly-Thinaah are expected to make it to the last four based on their current form and display of fighting spirit, especially after making it to the semi-finals at the Paris Olympics in August.
Zii Jia carries Malaysia’s lone challenge in the singles category. His inconsistency at the BWF meets this year does not give much hope of a podium finish at this tournament. However, the absence of world No 1 Viktor Axelsen due to a foot injury may see him make it to the semi-finals at least.
Akademi Badminton Malaysia director of coaching Rexy Mainaky recently expressed confidence of a breakthrough for Malaysia at the WTF.
He said his confidence was based on the number of players who had qualified for this year’s tournament.
“The chances of making history are good. Malaysia can win at least one of the titles,” he said.