KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 ― National mixed doubles coach Nova Widianto wants his protégés Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei to show consistency in the next three Badminton World Federation (BWF) world tour tournaments to improve their chances of breaking into the world’s top 10.
Nova said Tang Jie-Ee Wei will have to give their best at the Korea Open (July 18-23), Japan Open (July 25-30) and Australian Open (Aug 1-6).
The 46-year-old coach said it was important for the world number 14th ranked pair to take every tournament seriously as opponents have studied their playing style following their meteoric rise after being paired up only at the end of last year.
“The training time to go to these three tournaments is longer so we can make the most of it. We study their shortcomings and from there discuss how to improve the way they play.
“I hope their results at the Korea, Japan and Australian opens are good because it will determine their chances of becoming a top 10 pair. If they are good and rank among the top 10 pairs in the world, they can play at the World Championships in Copenhagen,” he said at the Malaysian Badminton Academy here today.
Nova said the young pair were not consistent, especially when playing against opponents of their standard or slightly below.
However, he is confident that his charges can continue to achieve success after having won four titles so far, namely the 2022 Bangladesh International Challenge, 2023 Iran International Challenge, 2023 Orleans Master and the Taiwan Open last month.
“Maybe the problem is lack of consistency. For example, they were confident when playing against a strong pair but failed to play to their true ability when up against a pair of the same standard or slightly below.
“However, they are already (Super 300) champions, so hopefully after this they can reach the 500 and 1,000 levels, like in Australia (Super 500) and Korea (Super 500),” he said. ― Bernama
