Jing Yi serves up a point in Malaysia’s win over Russia

Youngster Tee Jing Yi passed her first test as the country’s No. 1 women’s singles shuttler in the Sudirman Cup world mixed team championship tie against Russia in Qingdao yesterday.
The 20-year-old overcame early jitters to beat Anastasia Prokopenko 21-17, 21-13 and Malaysia went on to overcome Russia 4-1 in their opening tie in Group B.
It was Jing Yi’s first major tournament as the top ranked Malaysian women’ singles player and she was selected ahead of her senior, Lydia Cheah, whose world ranking has dropped due to injury.

Flying start: Tee Jing Yi defeated Russia’s Anastasia Prokopenko 21-17, 21-13.

Hopes are high on Jing Yi to fill the void left by Wong Mew Choo, who is now a coach at the Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS).
Besides Jing Yi’s win, the points in the victory over Russia came from Lee Chong Wei, Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong and Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty.
But Eei Hui-Pei Tty, however, took three games to beat Valeria Sorokina-Nina Vislova made their lives difficult before prevailing with wins over Vladimir Ivanov-Ivan Sozonov 21-12, 19-21, 21-15.
The defeat for Malaysia came in the opening mixed doubles match in which Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying found Alexandr Nikolaenko-Valeria Sorokina tough nuts to crack and went down fighting 19-21, 18-21.
Malaysia will take on Indonesia tomorrow and a win will take them them into the quarter-finals as the group winners.