HORSENS (Denmark), May 1 — The national women’s badminton squad has shown great potential for stronger performances in future editions following a positive campaign at the 2026 Uber Cup held at Forum Horsens.

National Coaching Director Rexy Mainaky expressed his admiration for the team’s fighting spirit. With a squad composed of 50 per cent young players, Malaysia managed to qualify for the quarterfinals of the prestigious tournament for the first time in 16 years, putting up a brave challenge despite falling 0-3 to defending champions China yesterday.

“The majority of the squad are young players; they were able to play with a ‘nothing to lose’ attitude and showed a positive performance against China (in the quarterfinals yesterday),” he said in a video shared by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) today.

“K. Letshanaa, as the first singles, faced the All-England champion Wang Zhi Yi, and our debut pair Ong Xin Yee and Carmen Ting managed to compete against the world No. 1 pair, Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning. They were very positive,” he added.

Yesterday, Malaysia began the quarterfinals on a difficult note when national women’s singles player K. Letshanaa (world No. 33) put up a fierce fight before narrowly losing 17-21, 18-21 to world number two Wang Zhi Yi in a match lasting 47 minutes.

The hope to level the tie almost materialised through debutants Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting, who displayed a courageous performance against the world’s number-one pair, Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning, before going down 14-21, 21-16, 13-21 in a 79-minute battle.

China secured their spot in the semifinals in the third match when their second singles player, Chen Yu Fei (world No. 4), defeated Wong Ling Ching 21-10, 21-10 in 36 minutes.

Meanwhile, Rexy stated that it is still too early to suggest that Xin Yee-Carmen, or the other young pair of Low Zi Yu-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan, can reach the level of the nation’s top pair and world number two, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah.

“It is too early to say they can reach the level of Pearly-Thinaah because what they still need to do in the coming years is take care of their mental and psychological strength,” he said.

Zi Yu-Noraqilah (world No. 143) had previously turned heads when they shocked the world’s seventh-ranked Japanese pair, Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi, 21-17, 12-21, 21-19, during the final Group B match last Monday.

This marks Malaysia’s fourth quarterfinal appearance in the tournament, matching their best achievement from the 2004, 2008, and 2010 editions.

The national squad began their Group B campaign with a 3-2 victory over Turkiye before defeating South Africa 5-0 to confirm their place in the quarterfinals. They finished the group stage as runners-up of Group B after losing 1-4 to six-time champions, Japan.

The 2026 Uber Cup, which began on April 24, runs until May 3. — Bernama