BOOSTED by their encouraging Malaysian Open debut, national women’s doubles pair Anna Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing are out to keep making waves in future tournaments.
Nothing much was expected of the world No. 44 as all attention was on their seniors and national No. 1 Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah.
But their stunning win over South Korea’s world No. 3 and last year’s World Championship silver medallists Lee So-hee-Shin Seung-chan in the second round made people sit up and take notice.
The victory came on the same day when Pearly-Thinaah surprisingly exited the tournament after losing to China’s Zhang Shuxian-Zheng Yu.
Anna-Mei Xing’s battling performance in their quarter-final loss to Japan’s world No. 6 Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara also gave them encouragement and confidence to match the top pairs in the world.
National doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky was singing the duo’s praises.
“They are a good pair and showed it here. They must push on and grow from here. They can keep getting better if they put their minds to it,” said Rexy.
Anna-Mei Xing will next see action in the Malaysian Masters starting tomorrow.
They have a tricky draw though, as they open their campaign against Thai sisters and world No. 28 Benyapa Aimsaard-Nuntakarn Aimsaard. If Anna-Mei Xing get past the Thai pair, they will most likely face Matsumoto-Nagahara again.
Mei Xing admitted that she and Anna have their work cut out for them in the lower-tier home tournament.
“We do want to do well but the draw does not look good for us. Having said that, we will go all out and try to get a positive result,” said Mei Xing.
