Goh Jin Wei begins her Girl's singles campaign at the 2016 Badminton World Junior Championships in Bilbao, Spain on 8 November.
The defending champion suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the World Junior Mixed Team Championships final against China. Jin Wei conceded the decisive match 22-20, 14-21, 21-8 against Chen Yufei, who recovered after conceding the second game in a gruelling 70-minute contest.
Jin Wei was expected to help the Malaysian team recover after they lost their Men's Singles and and mixed doubles pairing in the gold medal match. However, a resilient Yufei stunned the Malaysian teenager to win China the Mixed Team title.
However, the 16-year-old will have her opportunity to avenge her defeat in the Girl's singles event, which will feature a 256-player draw.
Jin Wei, the top seed, takes on Germany's Wilson Miranda in the first round at the Bilbao Arena on Tuesday at 9:50pm SGT. She will have to win at most seven matches to give herself a chance to defend her title.
Given the recent form of the young shuttlers, the Malaysian shuttler is likely to clash with Yufei, the second seed, in the ultimate battle of the competition. Notably, the 19-year-old Chinese shuttler kick starts her singles campaign against Romania's Maria Alexandria, which is also the final matchup of the day.
It would be interesting to see how Jin Wei recovers from her Sunday's defeat and faces Yufei, if the shuttlers make it to the final stages. Notably, the Malaysian had defeated her rival in the quarter-final in straight games during her title-winning run in 2015.
Malaysia coach Kwan Yoke Meng is confident that his ward will stage a strong comeback in the ongoing tournament. The former Thomas Cup winner had earlier revealed that he expected Jin Wei to win her match in the final against China on Sunday.
"Yufei read her [Jin Wei's] game very well. The defeat is hard to take but I am confident that Jin Wei will regain her confidence for the individual event," Yoke Meng was quoted as saying by The Star Online.
On the other hand, Yufei will look to carry forward her winning momentum in the ongoing tournament and dethrone Jin Wei from the top. The confident shuttler revealed that she never felt the pressure when facing the Malaysian in the final of the team event.
"I wasn't worried. I believe in myself. We already had two points and I was confident that I would win even though she has beaten me before. I didn't feel pressured or worried but I was really happy when we won," Yufei said, as quoted by the tournament's official website.
Apart from the two top seeds, Japan's Natsuki Nidaira, who went down in the semi-final of last year's tournament, will look to better her record.
