Kuala Lumpur - Bernama
Malaysia booked a ticket to the quarter-finals after edging India 3-2 in a Group W match of the Uber Cup Asian Zone qualifying tournament in Macau, Tuesday. Malaysia's top women's pair, Wong Pei Tty and Chin Eei Hui excelled to snatch a point from Indian pair, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa 21-12,21-16 while the Malaysian second pair, Vivian Hoo and Goh Liu Ying grabbed a point by defeating India's duo of Pradya Gadre and Prajakta Sawant 21-17, 21-17. Third national women's singles, Yang Li Lian struggled to seal Malaysia's victory by defeating India's singles, Sayali Gokhale 21-11, 15-21 and 20-22 in 56 minutes. As expected, world's number four women's singles, Saina Nehwal easily beat Malaysia's women's singles Tee Jing Yi 21-17,21-16 in 34 minutes. Sindhu P. V. defeated national second women's singles Lydia Cheah 16-21, 21-13 and 21-9. Malaysia were beaten by China 4-1 in the opening group matches. Only four tickets are slotted for the Asian Zone qualifying round which has four groups. The top two teams in each group will advance to the quarter-finals. The four losing quarter-finalists will play in a round-robin play-off to determine the last qualifier. The Thomas & Uber Cup finals will be held in Wuhan, China from May 20-27.