Hoping to bounce back: Goh Sze Fei (right) and Nur Izzuddin Rumsani have suffered early round exits in all their World Tour tournaments so far this year.
PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles pairs Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani and Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun face the prospect of being overtaken by several young rising pairs in the future if they do not buck up.
Both pairs have struggled in individual competitions this year while the likes of Choong Hon Jian-Mohd Haikal Nazri, Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi and Aaron Tai-Kang Khai Xing have impressed.
World No. 19 Sze Fei-Izzuddin have suffered early round exits in all their World Tour tournaments so far this year while Wei Chong-Kai Wun, who are ranked one rung higher, have only made it into the last eight once in the Swiss Open last month.
Youngsters Hon Jian-Haikal, on the other hand, captured their third title together in the Orleans Masters and have moved up to No. 28 in the latest rankings while Roy King-Arif also caught the eye when they finished as runners-up in the Spain Masters and rose to No. 50 in the world.Meanwhile, Aaron-Kai Xing, who are still eligible to play in junior tournaments, won their first senior title in the Thailand International Challenge, propelling them from No. 167 to No. 118 in the rankings.
Men’s doubles coach Tan Bin Shen was pleased with the progress of the back up pairs and acknowledged that Sze Fei-Izzuddin and Wei Chong-Kai Wun need to do better to stay ahead of their juniors.
“It’s good to see Hon Jian-Haikal and Roy King-Arif do well in World Tour Super 300 level tournaments and Aaron-Kai Xing winning their first senior title,” said Bin Shen.
“All three pairs are motivated to keep progressing well and this will push more pairs to strive to win and work harder in training.
“We need more back-up pairs to come up to support (national No. 1) Aaron (Chia) and (Soh) Wooi Yik.
“As for Sze Fei-Izzuddin and Wei Chong-Kai Wun, they can’t afford to remain stagnant or face being overtaken by the youngsters.
“Both pairs cannot qualify for the Paris Olympics anymore but there is still much to play for.
“They have never won a Super 500 or 750 title before and they should be aiming for this instead of always losing in the early rounds or quarter-finals.
“They have the Asian Championships (April 9-14) coming up next and I hope to see something positive from them in this tournament,” added Bin Shen.
Sze Fei-Izzuddin and Wei Chong-Kai Wun face a tough battle to clear the early rounds in the Asian meet in Ningbo, China, which is equivalent to a Super 1000 event.
The former have South Korea’s reigning world champions Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae standing in their way in their opening match while the latter will most likely take on India’s world No. 1 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty in the second round.
