PETALING JAYA: Young national women’s doubles pair Carmen Ting-Ong Xin Yee struck gold with a last minute entry into the Malaysian Open starting today at the Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil.
And the world No. 125 Carmen-Xin Yee don’t plan to waste the chance.
Carmen said it was a dream come true as she had harboured hope since childhood, knowing that only the world’s top 32 players earn the right to participate in this prestigious tournament.
“I think this is a great opportunity for us to compete in this tournament. We can learn from the top pairs here, and it’s also our first experience at such a high level event,” said Carmen, who hails from Johor Baru.
“I’m thrilled to achieve my dream of competing in this tournament at Axiata Arena.
The pair was recently promoted to the senior squad under coach Rosman Razak following impressive performances at the junior level.
The highest level tournament they have competed in so far in their careers has been a Super 100 event when they reached the quarter-finals at the Malaysian Super 100 in Kuala Lumpur last October.
The 18-year-olds are undaunted and determined to progress as far as possible and Xin Yee hoped they would get off to a flying start against world No. 22 Sung Shuo-yun-Yu Chien-hui of Taiwan.
“Although we’ve never faced them before, I had a discussion with Carmen and coach Rosman on strategies to play against them,” said Xin Yee.
“We aim to pull off an upset to build our confidence. But if things don’t go as planned, we’ll learn from our mistakes and start over.”
Carmen-Xin Yee initially found themselves as the second pair on the reserve list.
However, they earned their spot in this prestigious Super 1000 tournament following the withdrawals of Japan’s world number five pair, Kie Nakanishi-Rin Iwanaga and Thailand’s Laksika Kanlaha-Phataimas Muenwong.
The other pairs in the fray are Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, Teoh Mei Xing-Go Pei Kee and professionals Lim Chiew Sien-Vivian Hoo, with Vivian set to perform her swansong before retiring.
