THE recent defeat to India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty was a painful one for Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani.
But today, the world No. 12 Sze Fei-Izzuddin have a chance to erase the bitter memory of losing to them in the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup Finals in Bangkok last month.
The Swiss Open champions will cross swords with the world No. 8 Satwiksairaj-Chirag for the eighth time in today’s men’s doubles second-round clash and fans can expect the match to go down to the wire.
The records are certainly against the Malaysians. Besides the recent defeat, they have also lost to the Indians six other times with their only win recorded at last year’s Denmark Open.
Sze Fei and Izzuddin are unfazed by their past records.
“The head-to-head record does not matter to us. It will be a new match when we face them tomorrow (today). We have our supporters on our side this time. We will go all out for the win,” said Izzuddin.
Sze Fei chipped in: “We will discuss with our coach and come up with a new strategy to overcome the Indians.”
Meanwhile, national No. 1 pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik exacted sweet revenge when they powered their way past Japan’s Akira Koga-Taichi Saito 21-18, 21-19 in their opening match yesterday.
In their only meeting at the Denmark Open last year, the world No. 22 Japanese pair had served a cruel blow by upsetting the Malaysians in the second round.
“Playing at home is quite important, as we don’t want to disappoint the fans,” said Wooi Yik.
“We are quite happy with the results today and will now focus on our next match.”
Aaron-Wooi Yik will meet Singapore’s Terry Hee-Loh Kean Hean today for a place in the quarter-finals. The Malaysian pair are determined to win and go all the way to the final and end their title drought in Open tournaments.
“Every time we go into a tournament, we are looking to win it but so far we have come up short.
“Hopefully, this time we do finally win.
“But first, we need to beat the Singaporean pair.
“We won’t underestimate them as they have improved a lot,” said Aaron.
