26/04/2026

SUNDAY | APR 26, 2026

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Nerve-shredding win for Malaysia over Turkiye in Uber Cup opener

National women’s doubles pair Noraqilah Maisarah and Low Zi Yu in action against the Turkiye pair in their Uber Cup Group B match at the Horsens Forum in Denmark yesterday. – BERNAMAPIC

The duo held their nerve to edge past Yasmen Bektas and Zehra Erdem 21–18, 21–19, sealing a dramatic victory and sparing Malaysia’s blushes. Despite the shaky start, Malaysia remain on track for the quarterfinals. Team Thinaah is widely expected to brush aside South Africa in their next tie today (6pm Malaysian time), before facing a sterner test against group favourites Japan tomorrow (6pm).

UNDERDOGS Turkiye gave Malaysia a real scare, but the national women’s team dug deep to escape with a nerve-shredding 3–2 win in their Uber Cup Group B opener in Horsens yesterday. What was expected to be a routine outing quickly turned into a dogfight. Malaysia took the first and third singles but stumbled in the opening doubles, leaving the tie hanging by a thread at 2–2. With everything on the line, it was down to the young pairing of Low Zi Yu and Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan – and they delivered under pressure.

National women’s singles K. Letshanaa (left) and Goh Jin Wei in action against their respective Turkiye opponents yesterday. – BERNAMAPIC

Five-star Forest … as Pereira’s men extend unbeaten run, putting daylight between themselves and drop zone

NOTTINGHAM stunned Sunderland with a sensational 5-0 win on Friday to put some serious distance between themselves and the bottom three. It moved Vitor Pereira’s side on to 39 points, eight clear of 18th-placed Tottenham and six clear of 17th-placed West Ham. It is 15 years since a team was last rele gated from the Premier League with 39 points. So, with Forest unbeaten in eight games in all competitions, is it time to call the bat tle to avoid the Premier League’s final rele gation spot a two-horse race? Forest boss Pereira was quick to tell BBC Match of the Day that his side’s tally “isn’t enough” to stay up quite yet. “We need more points, we need to win more games and we need to keep our men tality,” he said. But is Pereira being needlessly cautious? Twenty-three teams have been on exactly 39 points after 34 games across FOREST

games. Redknapp described it as “the result of the season”. “In the predicament Forest are in, to go to Sunderland and win 5-0, yes Sunderland’s home form hasn’t been great of late but this is still a difficult place to go, and they had real quality,” added Redknapp. “An unbelievable result. I can only imag ine what Nuno Espirito Santo and Roberto de Zerbi are thinking. They are probably watching from behind the sofa thinking, ‘we’ve got it all on now’.” Forest striker Wood added to BBC Match of the Day that survival “is in touching dis tance”. He said: “I don’t think it’s done. But it’s a big mental one and back-to-back wins puts us in a good position.” According to Opta’s supercomputer, both Leeds and Forest are all but safe – their chances of relegation have narrowed significantly to less than 1%. – Agencies

“You are asking Tottenham to win four games … is that going to be possible? We don’t know. Back-to-back wins and it all changes.” Mathematically, eight more points ensures next season will be Forest’s fifth consecutive campaign in the top flight. In theory Tottenham could finish on 46 points, but that would require them to win all five of their final five games. In six first-half minutes Forest went from 1-0 up to 4-0 up by capitalising on some Sunderland errors and displaying a ruthlessness in front of goal not seen in the first half of the season. Chris Wood scored for the first time since a double on the opening day, having been sidelined for most of this campaign with a knee injury. Goalscorer Igor Jesus impressed, former Newcastle midfielder Elliot Anderson was also on the scoresheet and Morgan Gibbs White netted again to extend his superb goalscoring run to seven goals in seven

Premier League history – and none of them have gone down. There is a strong argument to be made that Forest, and by extension Leeds on 40 points, already have enough to stay up. When looking at 38-match seasons the average points tally of the side finishing 18th is 34.5 – so 35 points is, on average, good enough for survival. And, in even better news for Forest and Leeds fans, over the past five seasons the average points tally for 18th has dropped to 29.6. Only six teams have ever been relegated from the Premier League with 39 or more points in a 38-game campaign. The last two were Birmingham and Blackpool, who both went down with 39 in 2010-11. “Is 39 points enough to keep you up? Yes, but you have to work on the basis that anything is still possible,” former England midfielder Jamie Redknapp told Sky Sports after Forest’s win.

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