KUALA LUMPUR: Many would get carried away after achieving good results in a short period of time, but China’s men doubles pair He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu are different.
Instead, Jiting-Xiangyu are staying modest.
“Our progress is all about further enhancing our own experiences from competitions and training sessions,” said Jiting, who will be turning 26 next month.
“We were only paired in the latter half of last year and people have been studying our game and strategies, so we need to continue identifying our own shortcomings.”
Xiangyu said: “There’s no secret to getting along in such a short period of time... I think our respective playing styles just happened to be quite similar, so we clicked relatively quickly and could complement each other.”
Jiting-Xiangyu were formed after their respective partnerships with Zhou Haodong and Tan Qiang ended in October.
They, however, wasted no time showing their potential by lifting their first title together at the Japan Masters in November and ascending to the 32nd spot in the world rankings.
Out of six tournaments that they competed last year, Jiting-Xiangyu only experienced one early round exit at the Arctic Open, where they went down fighting to reigning Olympics champions Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin in the second round.
On Wednesday, Jiting-Xiangyu kicked off the season on a positive note after outplaying their compatriots and world No. 8 Liu Yuchen-Ou Xuanyi in the first round before winning against world No. 13 Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan yesterday at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.
Jiting-Xiangyu won the first game 21-17 and was leading 15-7 before Ahsan-Setiawan retired in the second.
“Our performance was not bad today (yesterday),” said Jiting.
“We lost to them (Ahsan-Setiawan) more than winning when we were still with our former partners.
“So, we brought out what we learned during our winter training into the game against them (Ahsan-Setiawan).”
Meanwhile, the three-time world champions Ahsan-Setiawan will anxiously wait for the diagnosis of the former’s back injury.
“I think it was a good match today (yesterday), they attacked fast,” said Setiawan.
“Ahsan injured his left side of his back during the second game.
“I’m not sure if this will be our last Malaysian Open... you’ll never know.”
