KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 — National men’s doubles Man Wei Chong and Tee Kai Wun need to focus on the mission of earning a place in the 2024 Thomas Cup squad after being excluded from the Badminton Asia Team Championship (BATC) 2024 in Shah Alam recently.
National men’s doubles coach Tan Bin Shen said Man-Tee could potentially be sent as the second national pair in the 2024 Thomas Cup in Chengdu, China, from April 28 to May 5, if they can prove their prowess in the tournaments.
“They are improving during training, I do hope they can overcome the pressure and lack of confidence on the court to prove their (ability) in the tournament as we need strong second pair in Thomas Cup.
“After several discussions with them, I see that Wei Chong-Kai Wun understand that they need a breakthrough, otherwise they (performance) will stagnate,” he told the press after the training session today.
Man-Tee had a lacklustre performance at the start of this season after being eliminated early in all three tournaments including a loss in the second round of the Indonesian Masters 2024 to the host representatives, Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto, 18-21, 20-22, last month.
The 2022 world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik are expected to maintain their place as the country’s top doubles, while Man-Tee, ranked 18th in the world, will compete with the professional pair, Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi (ranked 12th), Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani (ranked 19), and Choong Hon Jian-Muhammad Haikal Nazri (ranked 39) for a place in the 2024 Thomas Cup squad.
Man-Tee will square off with Canadian pair Kevin Lee-Ty Alexander Lindemann in the first round of the 2024 French Open while Japanese opponents Akira Koga-Taichi Saito await them in the opening round of the All England 2024.
In other developments, Tan said that although he has not set any specific targets for Chia-Soh at the 2024 French Open and 2024 All England Open, his team is working to help the country’s number one pair reach their peak performance at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris from July 26 to August 11.
They will open the 2024 French Open campaign against Germany’s Mark Lamsfuss-Marvin Seidel and will square off with Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin in the first round of the 2024 All England.
The French Open 2024 in Paris will be from March 5 to March 10 while the All England 2024 tournament in Birmingham will be from March 12 to March 17.
— Bernama
