KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 — National mixed doubles coach Nova Widianto admitted that his team’s failure to maintain focus and consistency, especially in the aspect of service and receiving, was one of the main reasons for their elimination in the quarter-finals of the 2026 Malaysia Open, despite having a clear game plan and physical advantages.

Nova said the national pair, Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei, should have been able to go further, but the lapses in several important points gave space to the opponents from Hong Kong to collect easy points.

“First of all, we would like to apologise. This time we failed to reach the minimum target to advance to the final. From the start of the third set, to the last point, we lost a lot of points in the service and receiving position. They appeared not ready to serve and receive the shuttle.

“So in just one, two, three strokes, Hong Kong could have grabbed points from there. I think their focus was weak. “They can’t maintain constant focus,” he said.

Commenting on the pair’s overall performance after winning the world title, Nova saw an improvement in terms of stability in the early rounds, but stressed the need for more consistency until the semi-finals and finals.

“If you look at performance, they are now a little more consistent. They rarely lose in the first or second round. However, in my opinion, to be truly consistent is to reach the final or semi-finals in a row, that has not yet been achieved.

“Being top-level players, they need to be consistent. They can’t just do that. At the minimum level, they need to follow their seeding position. If they are seeded third or fourth, then at least they need to be at that level. After that, only then can they improve because they can no longer lose in the quarter-finals,” he said.

Ahead of the Indian Open scheduled to take place from Jan 13 to 18, Nova hopes his men can quickly forget the disappointment of playing at home and focus fully on the next tournament.

“The draw for the Indian Open may be almost the same as here. So I think we need to forget what happened here.

“Hopefully we can. If we think that we have lost here and missed the target, I think that situation may cause us to fail again from now on. So I think the result here should be forgotten even though we are disappointed, and we must forget this result.”

Earlier, Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei were knocked out in the quarter-finals after losing to Hong Kong pair Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet 17-21, 21-17, 10-21 in a tough match that lasted 67 minutes at the Axiata Arena. — Bernama