Malaysia: 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, here, today.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, during the action in Unifi Arena, Bukit Jalil, here, 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 force the decider against the newly-crowned Thailand Open champions. She acknowledged the strength and power of the Chinese pair and expressed the need for improvement to match their level.

In the meantime, Su Hui-Zhing Hui were outclassed by fourth seeds from Japan, Arisa Igarashi-Chiharu Shida, 8-21, 12-21. Yesterday, two other national women's doubles pairs, Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting and Chong Jie Yu-Vanessa Ng, also exited in the first round of the Super 500 tournament. Xin Yee-Carmen, the seventh seeds, lost unexpectedly to Taiwanese pair Hsieh Yi En-Teng Chun Hsun 15-21, 20-22 in 39 minutes. Jie Yu-Vanessa were defeated by Chen Yan Fei-Sun Liang Ching of Taiwan 16-21, 17-21 in 33 minutes.

Previously, Malaysia suffered a setback as their main hope and national number one women's doubles pair, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, withdrew from the Malaysia Masters 2026. The Badminton Association of Malaysia, via its Facebook post, stated that the decision was made due to an injury sustained by Pearly. National Women's Doubles head coach Rosman Razak mentioned in a separate statement that 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 USD500,000 (RM1.98 million).