MIXED pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie are wary of a potential banana skin when they take on South Korea’s Kim Won-ho-Jeong Na-eun in the second round tomorrow.
The independent shuttlers refuse to look down on their opponents who are ranked a lowly 99th in the world.
“We have not played against this pair before. But we know they are quite strong and we need to prepare well. The drift is really strong on court and whichever pair can control the shuttle better will win,” said Shevon.
Yesterday, the world No. 14 survived a close battle with compatriots and world No. 9 Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing, winning 21-18, 19-21, 21-18 in exactly one hour.
For Kian Meng-Pei Jing, it was their fourth straight opening round loss and they have yet to reach a quarter-final since winning the Korean Open in April.
Their form is worrying with the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham looming next month.
Meanwhile, it was all over for Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See and Choong Hon Jian-Peck Yen Wei.
Peng Soon-Yee See, who were playing in their third tournament since being reunited, got off to a fantastic start against Indonesia’s world No. 19 Rinov Rivaldy-Pitha Haningtyas but lost their momentum and ended up losing narrowly 21-9, 12-21, 22-20 in 53 minutes.
“We were unlucky to lose. We tried our best to control the shuttle in windy conditions but ended up losing by two points in the end,” lamented Peng Soon.
Hon Jian-Yen Wei’s best efforts were in vain when they went down 18-21, 18-21 to Hong Kong’s world No. 7 Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet.
Malaysia will be banking on three more pairs to keep the Jalur Gemilang flying.
Chen Tang Jie-Valeree Siow will take on Japan’s world No. 16 Yuki Kaneko-Misaki Matsutomo while Hoo Pang Ron-Toh Ee Wei have an uphill battle against China’s world No. 1 Zheng Siwei-Huang Yaqiong.
Independent pair Soong Joo Ven-Goh Liu Ying will play Germany’s Jones Jensen-Linda Efler.
