UNFORTUNATELY, there was to be no heroics as the Malaysian women bowed out in the semi-finals of the Asian Team Championships against Japan yesterday.
Malaysia were feeling optimistic ahead of the tie after coming so close in the 3-2 defeat in the group stage.
However, the well-oiled Japan were fired up as they won 3-0 at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila yesterday.
Malaysia were banking on World No 31 Soniia Cheah to repeat her group-stage win over Akane Yamaguchi in the opening singles match.
But the World No 3 avenged her defeat to Soniia by winning 21-17, 21-18.
“I think it was a good game but Akane handled her chances better towards the end of both sets, while I made mistakes,” admitted Soniia.
“I feel sorry that I wasn’t able to reproduce the same form against Akane in the semi-finals.”
It quickly went downhill after that for Malaysia with World No 3 Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota crushing the scratch pairing of Lee Meng Yean-Yap Wen Cheng 21-11, 21-4.
Philippines Sea Games champion S. Kisona was thrown in to rescue the tie at second singles, but she was overwhelmed by World No 11 Sayaka Takahashi, who sealed Japan’s passage into the final with a 21-13, 21-13 win.
Despite the defeat, the Malaysian women should be proud as they managed to qualify for the Uber Cup on merit by reaching the last four.
More importantly, the good performances of Soniia and Kisona earlier in the tournament and the rise of young doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah augur well for the inexperienced squad.
“I’m definitely proud of my team’s fighting spirit and performance,” said Soniia, 26.
“We’ll need to bring the same type of fighting spirit and attitude when we play in the Uber Cup in May.”
Team manager Wong Choong Hann was also feeling upbeat with the women’s team and believes that there is room for improvement.
“Today (yesterday), we just couldn’t keep up with Japan but the players still fought hard in every rally,” said Choong Hann.
“There is still much work to be done on our side to get to their level, but I believe we are on the right track.
“What we need now is to improve the players individually while also adding depth to the squad at the same time.”
Japan will play South Korea, who defeated Thailand 3-1, in today’s final.