KUALA LUMPUR: The Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob is not pleased with the Thomas Cup shuttlers performance in Jakarta following their 2-3 defeat to China in the semi-finals yesterday.

Like all Malaysians, he too felt that Malaysia should have made it through to the final after starting-off brightly with world No. 2 singles Lee Chong Wei delivering the first point, defeating his nemesis world No. 1 Lin Dan in straight sets 21-12, 21-14. Ismail said the overall performance of the shuttlers was good as they had been preparing hard for the Cup but China were simply too good for Malaysia.

“It was definitely not Mohd Hafiz Hashim’s day as he lost tamely to Chen Jin in the decider,” he told Bernama when contacted here yesterday.

He said although the squad managed to reach their target by reaching the semi-final, there are still much room for them to improve.

The Chinese managed to edge past Malaysia when they won through their first doubles Fu Haifeng/Cai Yun and their two singles of Bao Chunlai and Chen Jin.

However, Ismail said he was happy with the Uber Cup’s squad overall performance after they managed to reach the quarter-final.

“There are many young shuttlers in the Uber Cup squad but yet they managed to reach the knock-out stage and it was a tremendous result for us. Although the squad failed to achieve their own target of making it to the last four, I am proud of them,” he said. — Bernama

The Malaysian women’s team were defeated by South Korea 1-3 in the quarter-final on Wednesday.

— Bernama