Gronya Somerville is enjoying her time playing in the SS Purple League in Malaysia.
The 23-year-old, Australia's number one women's double pair with Setyana Mapasa, is one of the international badminton players turning out in the latest season of the professional badminton league, including world champion Kento Momota, Singapore's Terry Hee and Yulia Yosephin Susanto of Indonesia.
Currently representing Petaling BC, she helped them finish third at the end of Stage 1 and is set to play a role in Stage 2 to secure her side's qualification for the finals taking place from January 24 to 27 at the Arena of Stars, Resorts World Genting.
During an appearance on Astro Arena's Forum, Somerville said she enjoyed the opportunity to play in the league and against top players.
"I think it is really good to be able to play against so many teams and clubs with such a variety of players from overseas and Malaysia.
"It's win-win for both local and foreign players to get such high quality matches and more match experience," she said.
Other than that, she said the different badminton culture in Malaysia has been beneficial to her.
"Back in Australia, we have shorter training sessions because we have [study] or work to get to, so we have high intensity training and drills are a lot shorter, maybe two, three minutes.
"In contrast, the training here is usually longer around 10-20 minutes and could go longer and up to three hours.
"I was here in July for an eight-week training, so I have built up quite well to be able to handle the longer training sessions.
"Since then I have incorporated some of the longer stuff into my training in Australia so that I can get a good combination of both," she added.
Seng Foo Lee
Wed Jan 09 2019
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