PETALING JAYA: Hoo Pang Ron-Teoh Mei Xing’s poor form is a cause for concern after the pair suffered yet another early exit.
The national mixed doubles pair, who were paired up last December, had slumped to a 14-21, 16-21 defeat to Indonesia’s world No. 48 Adnan Maulana-Nita Violina in the first qualifying round of the Thailand Open in Bangkok on Tuesday.
It was world No. 50 Pang Ron-Mei Xing’s fourth consecutive early-round exit since finishing runners-up at the Iran International Challenge in February.
The pair were also eliminated early in the German and Swiss Opens in March and Orleans Masters in April.
Pang Ron-Mei Xing have yet to reach the quarter-finals of any World Tour competitions.
“I believe Pang Ron-Mei Xing need to work on their chemistry and communication on court,” said mixed doubles coach Nova Widianto.
“They are not playing to their maximum abilities and the opponents can easily kill their shots.
“In training, they are doing all right but they are not confident enough in tournaments.”
Pang Ron-Mei Xing had shown promise at the start of their partnership by capturing the Malaysian International Challenge last December but have not been able to raise their level in World Tour events.
They will next be given an opportunity to gain some much-needed confidence at the Maldives International Challenge from June 5-10 and Taiwan Open (June 20-25), which is a Super 300 level competition.“We will take it step by step with them after this and look at their results in these two tournaments,” said Nova.
“Hopefully, they can perform well and eventually do better at higher-level tourneys.”
RESULTS
(Malaysians only)
First round
Men’s singles: Ng Tze Yong bt Priyanshu Rajawat (Ind) 21-19, 21-10; Leong Jun Hao bt Sitthikom Thammasin (Tha) 16-21, 21-16, 21-12.
Women’s singles: Wen Chi-hsu (Tpe) bt Goh Jin Wei 21-11, 21-19.
Mixed doubles: Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei bt Feng Yanzhe-Huang Dongping (Chn) 21-15, 19-21, 21-19; Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See bt Terry Hee-Jessica Tan (Sin) 15-21, 21-11, 22-20; Ye Hongwei-Lee Chia-hsin (Tpe) bt Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing 15-21, 21-16, 21-16.
