Beauties: Margot Lambert (right) and Anne Tran of France hope to go one step better in their second Malaysian Open.
PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles shuttler Margot Lambert of France hopes to get off to a sizzling start with Anne Tran in the Malaysian Open starting on Tuesday to make amends for their early exit in last year’s edition.
Lambert-Tran crashed out in the first round after losing 21-16, 21-9 to second-seeded Lee So-hee-Shin Seung-chan of South Korea last year.
The 23-year-old Lambert, ranked 27th in the world with Tran, knows that it will be tall order against world No. 19 Febriana Dwipuji-Amalia Cahaya of Indonesia.
In their previous meetings last year, Lambert-Tran lost in the second round of the Indonesian Open but got their revenge in the first round of the World Championships.
The French pair is staying positive.
“They (Febriana-Amalia) have strong spirit. They will always give everything on court and never give up easily.
“It’s going to be a tough match, but I believe we still have a chance to win,” said Lambert.
Their partnership was formed during a reshuffle in the team after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Lambert admitted that they are still in the process of understanding each other and emphasised that communication was a crucial aspect in their partnership.
“I think our partnership is going well but sometimes, we have trouble understanding each other so we have to communicate better,” she said.
Lambert-Tran have arrived early to prepare for the home tournament and began their first training session at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) on Thursday.
They sparred with the national team, including Valeree Siow-Go Pei Kee.
“We’ve been here before and we like it here. It feels good to train with them (Valeree-Pei Kee). It gives us a different match game experience as we don’t have many players in our home country,” said Lambert.
