Come undone: Mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei went down 20-22, 21-11, 15-21 to Indonesia’s Rinov Rivaldy-Pitha Haningtyas. — IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
IT WAS a bad day at the office for the country’s mixed doubles pairs in the Malaysian Masters when all crashed out in the first round.
Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei, who were the the Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) sole representatives, could not celebrate their rise from No. 22 to 20 in the latest world rankings after they went down fighting 20-22, 21-11, 15-21 to Indonesia’s world No. 14 Rinov Rivaldy-Pitha Haningtyas at the Axiata Arena.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei, who had progressed rapidly after being paired up last December, were left visibly disappointed after losing a close match.
“While going up in the rankings is something positive for us, we don’t like to lose,” said Tang Jie.
“We lost focus a bit at the end of the third game and we need to improve on this.
“We need to learn from the top pairs from China, for example, who are consistent and manage to stay fully focused until the end of every match.”
The others, who saw their campaigns end prematurely were independent pairs Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie (No. 7), Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing (No. 17) and Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See (No. 33).
Soon Huat-Shevon lost out 19-21, 21-18, 12-21 to Indonesia’s Praveen Jordan-Melati Daeva while Kian Meng-Pei Jing fell 20-22, 20-22 to Thailand’s Supak Jomkoh-Supissara Paewsampran.
Peng Soon-Yee See found South Korea’s world No. 9 Kim Won-ho-Jeong Na-eun too hot to handle and went down 8-21, 15-21.
“We really wanted to win as we had beaten the Indonesians for the first time in the Swiss Open in March,” said Shevon.
“Before that, we had lost three times to them.
“We knew it would not be easy as we had to work hard to beat them in three games in Basel.
“Physically, we were not at 100% as we were still recovering after returning from the Sudirman Cup in Suzhou.
“We had a long flight back and only arrived on Monday and had to rest yesterday.
“We don’t want to make excuses as all the players are also in the same situation.
“We gave everything to try to win but we started to slow down in the third game and they took advantage of this.
“We need to recover better for our next tournament, the Thailand Open, next week.
