Up for the challenge: Toh Ee Wei (front) and Chen Tang Jie will face Taiwan’s Lin Bing-wei-Lin Chih-chun in the first round of the Korean Open.
PETALING JAYA: It takes a player with great mental strength to cope with post-Olympics lethargy.
And mixed doubles shuttler Toh Ee Wei is learning to deal with it in the best way she can and that is without over stressing about her form with her partner Chen Tang Jie on the court.
Their return from a successful outing at the Paris Olympic Games ended with a quarter-final defeat to world No. 4 Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin of China in the Japan Open in Yokohama last week.
In Paris, the debutants hardly showed any nerves in their superb win against world No. 2 Feng Yanzhe-Huang Dongping in the group stage, which spoke volumes of their quality as a pair.
Ee Wei knows all her hard work and sacrifice leading up to the Olympics would not go to waste.
“It has not been easy to play as best as I could after the Olympics. Mentally, I’ve been quite tired after the Games due to the high intensity training and the stress that came with the long period of preparation,” said Ee Wei.
“Right now, Tang Jie and I are focusing on selected tournaments until end of this year and will then sit again with our coach, to look at plans for the future.
“Our performance and form are not that good but we just keep at it – try and regain our rhythm.
One thing that Ee Wei has learnt from her Olympics experience is to stay courageous.
“It was quite a special feeling playing at the Games.
“It was a mixture of feeling tense and excited at the same time, I never experienced that before but I enjoyed that environment,” she said.
Ee Wei will get to feel that excitement again when she and Tang Jie begin their campaign in the Korean Open starting tomorrow.
The fourth seeds will face Lin Bing-wei-Lin Chih-chun of Taiwan in the first round, and if they win, they may face teammates Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Yu Sin.
They may meet Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie in the quarter-finals and if they clear that, they may face one of these two Chinese pairs – second seeds Zhenbang-Yaxin or world No. 51 Cheng Xing-Zhang Chi.
The other pairs in the top half are top seeds Seo Seung-jae-Chae Yu-jung of South Korea, Malaysia’s Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing, another Korean pair and third seeds Kim Won-ho-Jeong Na-eun to mention a few.
