PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles pair Anna Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing are bent on closing the gap on their seniors Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah.
Anna-Mei Xing learned how far they lag behind their teammates during their chastening first-round defeat to them in the Indonesian Open recently.
“We could see that there is certainly a big gap. We need to put in a lot more effort to match them,” said Mei Xing.
Pearly-Thinaah, meanwhile, have shown great improvement in their game and are now ranked 10th in the world.
Anna-Mei Xing, currently 44th in the world, hope to emulate their seniors’progress.
“The main thing is we need to be more consistent and improve on the quality of our shots,” added Mei Xing.
The pair are now gearing up for a hectic schedule with three back-to-back tournaments awaiting them – Malaysian Open (June 28-July 3), Malaysian Masters (July 5-10) and Singapore Open (July 12-17).
But the home Open is what they are really looking forward to.
“We feel excited but also a bit nervous to make our debuts in the Malaysian Open in front of the home crowd. But we have been training hard and are ready to give a good account of ourselves,” said Mei Xing.
They have a relatively easy opener against Ireland’s unheralded Kate Frost-Moya Ryan that will help settle their nerves.
If they get past the hurdle, a tough challenge awaits as they will likely take on South Korea’s world No. 3 Lee So-hee-Shin Seung-chan.
Meanwhile, 38th ranked men’s doubles pair Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun are keeping their fingers crossed that they can make their bow in the Malaysian Open.
Wei Chong’s fitness is still suspect after suffering a knee injury in the Hanoi SEA Games last month.
The injury had already forced them to miss the Indonesian Masters and Indonesian Open.
“I started training last week. My recovery is at about 80% to 90%. Hopefully, I can recover fully in time for the competition,” said Wei Chong.