Malaysian men’s doubles player, Aaron Chia, talks about his medal target at the 2024 Thomas Cup even though they are in a difficult group with Denmark and Hong Kong.
Bringing a limping squad makes it doubtful that Malaysia will be able to go far in the 2024 Thomas Cup which will take place on 27 April – 5 May 2024 in Chengdu, China.
The neighboring country’s squad competes in a quite tricky group , joining Denmark, Hong Kong and Algeria in Group D.
Denmark and Hong Kong both have a strong men’s singles team and are more promising than the squad brought by Malaysia.
Denmark has Viktor Axelsen, Anders Antonsen and Rasmus Gemke. Meanwhile, Hong Kong was strengthened by Lee Cheuk Yiu and Ng Ka Long Angus.
What about Malaysia ? They had to rely on Lee Zii Jia who was the spearhead.
Their men’s singles strength became increasingly fragile after the second player, Ng Tze Yong, withdrew due to problems recovering from a recent spinal injury.
Meanwhile, the distance between Lee Zii Jia and the next men’s singles players, namely Leong Jun Hao, Cheam June Wei and Justin Hoh, is quite far.
In fact, strength in the singles sector is the key in the most prestigious team event in the world because it is played three times, compared to two matches for men’s doubles.
Even though he is in a difficult position, Aaron Chia still dares to look at the competition with high optimism.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist even hopes that Malaysia can at least qualify for the semifinals to guarantee a medal win.
“The Thomas Cup is a big team tournament and it is important for us like the Asian Games and other major tournaments,” said Aaron Chia , quoted by BolaSport.com from The Star.
“Wooi Yik and I hope to help the team win a medal in this edition. It doesn’t matter what color the medal is, the important thing is we want the (Thomas Cup) medal.”
Aaron Chia has played for Malaysia three times in the Thomas Cup but has always been stuck in the quarter-finals.
To achieve this target, Malaysia must of course be able to get out of a difficult group.
Beating Hong Kong in the second match was Chia/Soh et al’s plan. to realize the first initial steps of the targets carried out.
Because their chances are slimmer when they face Denmark in the last match of the group phase.
“On paper Denmark has an advantage over us in singles, while their doubles are also not bad,” said Chia.
“We will still try to beat them so we can win the group. But before that, we have to win against Hong Kong.”
“In singles the odds are 50:50 between us and them, while in doubles we are superior,” he said.
Hong Kong had to bring in mixed doubles specialists, Tang Chun Man and Lee Chun Hei Reginald, to strengthen their doubles sector.
This strategy has been successful before where an impromptu pair containing the two players above was able to score points from a difficult match.
Tang Chun Man and Yeung Shing Choi defeated Taiwan’s tenacious pair, Lu Ching Yao/Yang Po Han, at the 2023 Asian Mixed Team Championships to lead Hong Kong to a 3-2 win.
As for Lee Chun Hei, at the 2022 Asian Team Championship, he and Law Cheuk Him defeated the Indonesian pair, Pramudya Kusumawardana/Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan.