PETALING JAYA: Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun are plotting to turn the tables on home pair Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae in the men’s doubles first round of the South Korean Open from July 18-23 in Yeosu.
They had agonisingly lost out 15-21, 22-24, 19-21 to world No. 11 Min-hyuk-Seung-jae in the final of the Malaysian Masters in May.
This time, world No. 23 Wei Chong-Kai Wun, who successfully defended their Taiwan Open title in Taipei, are out to get the better of the Koreans on the latter’s home ground.
“We want to perform better than we did in the final in Malaysia to beat the Koreans,” said Wei Chong.
“We will analyse their game and come up with a better strategy to overcome them.”
If Wei Chong-Kai Wun pull off a win over the homesters, they will face either Indonesia’s world No. 7 Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan or world No. 14 Shohibul Fikri-Bagas Maulana in the second round.
The Malaysian duo had suffered from injuries and early round exits after winning the Taiwan Open last year and do not want a repeat of the same fate this time around.
“Our challenge now is to be more consistent and step up in higher level tournaments,” said Wei Chong.
“While winning the Taiwan Open was a good start for us, we know that there is still a long way for us to go to reach the top.
“After we finished runners-up in the Malaysian Masters, we lost in the early rounds in both the Singapore and Indonesian Opens.
“We need to learn from this and try to continue our winning momentum in our next tournaments.
“Our aim is to break into the top 15 by the end of the year and we need to consistently reach the quarter-finals or semi-finals to be able to do so.’’
Wei Chong-Kai Wun will also compete in the Japan Open from July 25-30 in Tokyo and Australian Open from Aug 1-6 in Sydney.