KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — Malaysia’s interest in the women’s doubles event came to a premature end as their last two hopes: Low Zi Yu-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan and Cheng Su Hui-Tan Zhing Hui, bowed out from the opening round of the Malaysia Masters 2026 today.
During the action in the Unifi Arena, Bukit Jalil, China Masters 2026 runners-up Zi Yu-Noraqilah went down to China’s Bao Li Jing-Cao Zi Han, 21-18, 21-12 in 38 minutes.
Noraqilah admitted they lost focus in the second game after trailing 0-11, making it difficult for them to mount a comeback and forced the decider against the newly-crowned Thailand Open champions.
“China’s pair is quite good, and they have more power, of course, than we. We have not reached the level of the duo who just won the Thailand Open last week. So, we need to improve," she told the media in the mixed zone.
In the meantime, Cheng-Tan were outclassed by the fourth seeds from Japan Arisa Igarashi-Chiharu Shida, 8-21, 12-21.
Yesterday, two national women's doubles pair Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting and Chong Jie Yu-Vanessa Ng exited in the first round of the Super 500 tournament.
Ong-Ting, seventh seeds, lost unexpectedly to the Taiwanese pair of Hsieh Yi En-Teng Chun Hsun 15-21, 20-22 in 39 minutes.
Chong-Ng were shown the exit by Chen Yan Fei-Sun Liang Ching of Taiwan 16-21, 17-21 in 33 minutes.
Previously, Malaysia was dealt a huge blow as their main hope and national number one women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan withdrew from the Malaysia Masters 2026.
The Badminton Association of Malaysia said the decision was made due to Pearly's injury.
Similarly, national women's doubles head coach Rosman Razak said it was still too early to allow Pearly to return to the court, even though her recovery is progressing well.
The Malaysia Masters 2026, which kicked off yesterday and continues until May 24, carries a total prize pool of US$500,000 (RM1.98 million).
