KUALA LUMPUR: Mixed doubles pair, Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei secured their place in the quarter-finals of the Indian Open after defeating the rising Thai duo, Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Supissara Paewsampran earlier on Thursday (Jan 16).
Despite being seeded third in the tournament, Tang Jie-Ee Wei faced a tough challenge against Dechapol-Supissara, who were crowned champions at the Malaysian Open just last week.
However, the Malaysian pair fought relentlessly, and the match became tense towards the end of the third game when they held a three match point advantage.
A few errors forced the match to extend further, but Tang Jie-Ee Wei eventually sealed the victory with a 19-21, 21-12, 22-20 win after a 65 minute battle.
"We stick to our strategy, although we made a couple of mistakes at 20-17. We discussed it among each other and with our coach, but I think the most important thing is that we believe in each other.
"Everyone feels the pressure when competing, but the important thing is how to release it on court. For us, we try to make it hard for them to get points from us, and that's the mindset we kept today," said Tang Jie in a post match interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday (Jan 16).
In the quarter-finals on Friday (Jan 17), they will meet another Thai duo, Ruttanapak Oupthong-Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat, who stunned the sixth-seeded Chinese pair, Cheng Xing-Zhang Chi, in a thrilling second round clash.
