KUALA LUMPUR: Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky says he is not rushing to set high targets involving national men's and women's doubles at the BWF World Tour Finals.
Before this, Rexy said he had expected Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Pearly Tan-M Thinaah to get past the group stage however he would be making a re-assessment of the targets after the players’ draw is known on Dec 5.
'Of course, all those who qualified should be targetted to be the champions in the Word Tour. But first, they need to get past the group stage. If we set our target to be champion before the group stage, it would put pressure on the players.
“The draw is not out yet, but based on the Word Tour ranking, it is not impossible for them to meet stronger pairs. So we need to see first before setting clear targets that are achievable,” said Rexy after a training session at Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM), here today.
According to Rexy, the preparations involving the players ahead of the tournament are going on well with more focus on the psychological aspects to build their mental strength.
Rexy said that so far, the mental resilience of the country's men's and women's pairs is commendable, but it can be further improved.
Besides the pairs of Aaron-Wooi Yik and Pearly-Thinaah, Malaysia will also be represented by four other pairs at the World Tour which will be held in Bangkok, Thailand from Dec 7 to 11.
They are professional men's pair, Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi, professional women's pair, Vivian Hoo-Lim Chiew Sien and two professional mixed doubles pairs of Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie and Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing.
In another development, Rexy said he was reshuffling the mixed doubles pairs for several tournaments in the future.
“It is already underway and the finalised pairs are Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei, Hoo Pang Ron-Teoh Mei Xing, Choong Hon Jian-Yap Ling, Loo Bing Kun-Yap Cheng Wen and Yap Roy King-Valeree Siow.
“We have paired them several times and we feel they need to be maintained,” he said.
Rexy who is known for experimenting with new combinations in the past involving the doubles players, would do the same and reshuffle the men’s doubles pairs at the Malaysian International Challenge in Ipoh from Dec 13 to Dec 18.-Bernama
