KUALA LUMPUR: National men’s doubles pair Wan Muhammad Arif Shaharuddin Wan Junaidi and Yap Roy King are aiming to reach the quarter-finals of the Badminton Asia Championships (BAC) in Ningbo, China, which starts today.
According to Wan Arif, preparations with his partner have gone smoothly as planned, and they hope this will help them meet their target.
“Our preparation is the same as before, and hopefully no unexpected issues will crop up before the BAC.
“We are targeting to reach the quarter-finals and maybe upset some top pairs from other countries,” he said when met recently.
The duo, ranked 19th in the world, will open their BAC campaign against Singapore’s Wesley Koh and Junsuke Kubo.
If they advance to the second round, the Malaysian pair will face a tough challenge as they are likely to meet second seeds Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang of China, who are expected to beat Taiwan’s Fan Jen Lee and Fang Jen Lee in the opening round.
Commenting on the absence of India’s top pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, Wan Arif said it would not make the task of Malaysian players any easier.
He said BAC is a top-rate tournament and no pairs should be taken lightly. – BERNAMA
