Malaysia’s weakness in the men’s singles was laid bare by England in their Group B Thomas Cup match-up in Horsens, Denmark.
And more importantly it also showed the importance of their star singles player Lee Zii Jia playing the third singles.
After both Justin Ho and Soleh Aidil getting beaten by lower ranked English players, Malaysia relied on their doubles pairing winning and for Zii Jia to clinch the deciding third singles.
Justin Ho was up against Harry Huang, ranked 62nd in the world and was expected to give Malaysia the opening point. But the top 22-year-old Malaysian, ranked 18 rungs above Harry, crashed out 19-21, 19-21.
However, the reliable Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik pulled the Malaysians level, overcoming a jittery opening game to romp past Oliver Butler-Samuel Jones 21-19, 21-13 in just 33-minutes.
Twenty-six-year-old Sholeh Aidil was a bundle of nerves in the second singles tie against Cholan Kayan, who is ranked more than 100 rungs below the Malaysian.
Aidil, ranked 51 compared to rival at 152, failed to get the momentum going. Cholan played his hearts out to take the match 21-16, 21-15 in 42-minutes and put England 2-1 ahead.
Malaysia flexed their strength in the doubles with Man Wei Chong-Tee Wai Kun easing to a 21-14, 21-14 win over Alex Green-Zach Harris.
The much criticized Zii Jia stepped in to save the day for Malaysia when he took just 35-minutes to beat Nadeem Dalvi 21-13, 21-11 in the third singles and the win for Malaysia.
RESULTS
THOMAS CUP
Group C
(Justin Ho lost Harry Huang 19-21, 19-21; Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik bt Oliver Butler-Samuel Jones 21-19, 21-13; Soleh Aidil lost to Cholan Kayan 16-21, 15-21; Man Wei Chung-Tee Wai Kun bt Alex Green-Zach Russ 21-14, 21-14; Lee Zii Jia bt Nadeem Dalvi 21-13, 21-11
UBER CUP
Group C
Chinese Taipei beat Australia 5-0 (Chiu Pin-Chien bt Tiffany Ho 21-10, 21-9; Lin Hsiang Ti bt Faye Huo 21-11, 21-11; Hsu Yin-Hui-Lin Jhih Yun bt Gronya Somerville bt Angela Yu 21-17, 21-13; Sung Shuo Yun bt Jesslyn Carrisia 21-12, 21-12; Hsu Ya Ching-Sung Yu-Hsuan bt Faye Ho-Victoria Tjonadi 21-5, 21-7)
Indonesia lead Canada 3-1 (Putri Kusuma Wardani lost to Michelle Li 16-21, 21-11, 21-16; Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma-Meilysa Trias Puspitasari bt Jackie Dent-Crystal Lai 23-21, 21-10; Thalita Ramadhani Wiryawan bt Zhang Wen Yu 21-16, 21-19; Amalia Cahaya Pratiwi-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti bt Catherine Choi-Josephine Wu 21-18, 21-11; Ni Kadek Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi vs Rachel Chan (in progress)
