PETALING JAYA: Do you know how sweet revenge can be? Just ask mixed doubles shuttlers Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei (pic, above).
After several defeats, Olympians Tang Jie-Ee Wei finally found a way to beat professionals Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie and they did it in style – by beating them in straight games in the Korean Open.
World No. 9 Tang Jie-Ee Wei played superbly to oust world No. 13 Soon Huat-Shevon 21-18, 21-11 in the quarter-finals in Mokpo yesterday.
It was the former’s first win over the independent pair this year after losing twice to them in the Swiss Open final in March and last four of the Malaysian Masters in May.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei also came second best to Soon Huat-Shevon in last year’s Korean tourney and only beat them once before this in three games in the Japan Masters last November.
Tang Jie was pleased to come away with the win and gave credit to Ee Wei for her performance.
“My partner carried us today (yesterday). I’m very happy that we could break through them because we lost to them in straight games three times before this,” said Tang Jie in a post match interview with Spotv.
“We have trained with them a lot in the past and know each other very well. It always depends on which pair performs better on the day.”
While it was joy for Tang Jie-Ee Wei, Soon Huat-Shevon were left disappointed after they could not continue their winning streak over the former.
Shevon felt that she and Soon Huat could not bring out their best game this time.
“There were some miscommunication between us in the first game and we could not get our focus back in the second,” lamented Shevon.
“We made far too many mistakes in the second game and gave away easy points to our opponents.”
Tang Jie-Ee Wei are now looking to reach their first final since finishing runners-up in the Swiss tourney.
The duo though face a tricky challenge in the last four today against China’s world No. 31 Cheng Xing-Zhang Chi, who toppled world No. 3 teammates Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin in the second round.
This will be the first meeting between Tang Jie-Ee Wei and the Chinese pair in an international tournament.
Meanwhile, women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah also made it into the semi-finals after defeating Taiwan’s Teng Chun-hsun-Yang Chu-yun 21-19, 21-15.
World No. 9 Pearly-Thinaah have a tougher task next against home favourites and world No. 2 Baek Ha-na-Lee So-hee.
