PETALING JAYA: A close friendship off the court is helping men’s doubles shuttler Fazriq Razif form a promising partnership with Bryan Goonting.
Fazriq, 20 and Bryan, 19 were combined in the beginning of this year and have slowly been climbing up the rankings.
The pair reached a career high No. 70 after making the quarter-finals of the World Tour Super 100 Indonesian Masters recently.
Fazriq, who is the son of legendary former player Datuk Razif Sidek, shared that his friendship off the court with Bryan is the key to their improvement on court.
“In the doubles, chemistry is very important and there is good understanding between Bryan and I,” said Fazriq.
“We have been close friends since the age of 12. Both of us are from the same state team, Kuala Lumpur.
“We always hang out together during our free time and go out for coffee. We have good communication and we complement each other well on court. I hope Bryan and I can form a permanent partnership.”
Fazriq-Bryan’s best performance came in the Sri Lanka International Challenge in February where they finished runners-up.
The youngsters also made it into the last four of the Slovenian Open in May.
Fazriq-Bryan then impressed in the World Tour Super 300 Macau Open in September when they stunned Taiwan’s world No. 28 Lin Bing-wei-Su Ching-heng en route to reaching the last eight.
The youngsters are happy with their progress so far and hope to win their first title together.
“We are happy with our progress so far and we hope to win a title soon. Most importantly, we want to be more consistent in every tournament,” said Fazriq.
“Sometimes, when we face senior pairs, we are less experienced and our shots are not consistent enough. So, we need to improve on this.”
Fazriq-Bryan will next compete in the Syed Modi International from Nov 26-Dec 1 in Lucknow.
