KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — National men’s doubles head coach Herry Iman Pierngadi remains hungry for success, challenging his players to win either the Japan Open or China Open title next month.
Herry said preparations for both tournaments — the Japan Open from July 15-20 in Tokyo and the China Open from July 22-27 in Changzhou — have been progressing smoothly so far.
“The preparation is going very well. I have a personal target and hope the players can win one of the titles (Japan or China Open) for Malaysia,” he told reporters after a training session here today.
The Super 750 Japan Open offers a total prize pool of US$950,000 (RM4.04 million), while the China Open, a Super 1000 tournament, promises an even bigger purse of US$2 million.
Since taking over as national men’s doubles coach in February, Herry has quickly made an impact, guiding 2022 world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik to victory at the 2025 Badminton Asia Championships in April, followed by titles at the Thailand Open and Singapore Open last month.
The 62-year-old Indonesian coach also played a key role in helping another Malaysian pair, Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun, clinch the Malaysia Masters last month.
At the same time, he acknowledged that other Malaysian pairs, including Wan Arif Wan Junaidi-Yap Roy King and Choong Hon Jian-Muhammad Haikal Nazri, still need time to close the gap with Aaron-Wooi Yik and Wei Chong-Kai Wun.
“Each pair is different. For example, Aaron-Wooi Yik only needed two to three months to adapt to my training style because of their maturity. So I need to give time to the others to catch up with the top pairs,” he said.
Nicknamed the Fire Dragon, Herry is a highly regarded coach credited with producing numerous world-class Indonesian pairings, including Olympic gold medallists Candra Wijaya-Tony Gunawan (Sydney 2000) and Hendra Setiawan-Markis Kido (Beijing 2008). — Bernama
