15 countries along with Malaysia competed in the ITF World Junior Tennis Competition (14U) Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying Event (Boys) in Kuching from 30 April to 6 May, 2012.
The other countries taking part were: Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, Syria, Thailand and Uzbekistan.
The purpose of this tournament was to select four teams for the World Finals in the Czech Republic in August 2012.
Malaysia was represented by Koay Hao Sheng, Talhah Rahizam and Khairil Anas Abd Rahim with Noorlan Zakaria as the non playing captain.
The participating countries were divided into four groups. The best two countries from each group played in the final group to decide 1st to 8th placing. The rest played for positions 9 to 16.
Malaysia was drawn into Group D with Australia (fourth seeds), Philippines (sixth seeds) and Hong Kong.
Our target was to improve our last year's achievement, which was no. 13/16.
The 1st Stage:
Sets % and Games% was very close to that of Philippines.
Becoming 4th meant that Malaysia entered the second phase as an unseeded country, which made things more difficult.
The 2nd Stage (Play-off 9-16th placing)
Malaysia was drawn to play a strong Indonesia team in the 1st round. Losing to them meant that we went further down to play Kazakhstan. Losing meant that we had to win Syria to avoid being the last. Malaysia won and the final placing was no. 15.
The draw is below:
As mentioned earlier, the target was 12 or better for the boys unfortunately we didn't succeed.
All countries involved were strong and as we were drawn into relatively strong group, we went to the 2nd phase unseeded, which caused some further "damage".
The best individual player was Koay Hao Sheng and his performance matched many of the stronger ones in the tournament.
Yus Syazlin Yussri, Nurin Nabilah Roslan , Loo Shi Pei and non playing captain Khairul Omar represented Malaysia in the World Junior Tennis Competition 2012 Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying from 5-12 May, 2012 in Kuching, Sarawak.
15 countries along with Malaysia competed against each other. Top four were to qualify for the World Finals in Prostejov, Czech Republic in August, 2012 like in the Boys sector.
The participating countries are: Australia (1), China (2), Chinese Taipei (7), Hong Kong, India (4), Indonesia, Japan (3), Kazakhstan, Korea (5), Malaysia, New Zealand (8), Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand (6) and Uzbekistan.
The 16 countries were divided to play in four pools. The best two teams from each pool played a play-off for places 1-8. The rest competed for places 9-16.
Malaysia was drawn into pool C, where the other countries were: Japan, Kazakhstan and Thailand.
Our target was being no. 12 or better.
The 1st Stage:
After defeats against Thailand and Japan our girls recovered well winning the all important tie against Kazakhstan, which secured for them a seeding in the play-off stage (9-16).
In the 2nd Stage the girls beat everyone except, Indonesia and became no. 11, which was better than targeted.
The crucial match was the 1st round match against Uzbekistan. On the previous day Yus Syazlin fell ill but she was able to recover to strengthen our team.
Overall Yus Syazlin was our best player, showing good performance in all matches (except Thailand).
Nurin Nabilah did her best. She and Yus Syazlin won all their doubles matches, which is an outstanding result.
The overall winner of this tournament was: Australia, no. 2 China, no.3 India and no. 4 Thailand.