PETALING JAYA: Mixed doubles shuttlers Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei justified their status as world No. 3 after another semi-final finish in the Indian Open but minor miscommunication is still holding them back.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei suffered a disappointing 17-21, 15-21 defeat to world No. 12 Thom Gicquel-Delphine Delrue of France at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi yesterday.
The former had a good opportunity to reach their first final of the year but could not raise their game and went down in 42 minutes.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei had beaten Gicquel-Delrue in three of their past four meetings but the latter managed to turn the tables this time.
A disappointed Tang Jie admitted that there were some miscommunication between him and Ee Wei during the match.
“There was a bit of a miscommunication on our strategy today (yesterday). It’s not a big problem for us but we will discuss after this,” said Tang Jie.
“We cannot process our feelings now as we lost the match.”
Ee Wei said: “Our opponents put pressure on us and we were forced to lift the shuttle.”
Tang Jie-Ee Wei are showing greater consistency lately after reaching at least the last four in their past four tournaments but still need to improve to win the bigger titles.
The pair also made it into the semi-finals in the China Masters and Malaysian Open and finished runners-up to China’s Paris Olympics champions Zheng Siwei-Huang Yaqiong in the World Tour Finals last month.
While Tang Jie-Ee Wei’s best achievement to date was the second placed finish in the Finals, their biggest title so far is the World Tour Super 500 Korean Open.Meanwhile, it was also heartbreak for world No. 4 Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie after they lost 21-18, 19-21, 9-21 to China’s world No. 2 Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin in a hard fought match.
Soon Huat-Shevon did well to come back from 10-16 down to take the first game but narrowly lost the second and could not regain their rhythm in the decider.
“In the third game, we were both still physically fine but we couldn’t keep our composure on court.
“Losing the second game in such a manner affected us,” said Shevon.
“I think we still have to improve on this. We have been through situations like this before but every match is different.
“This is another setback for us to learn from.”
Both Tang Jie-Ee Wei and Soon Huat-Shevon will next compete in the Indonesian Masters which starts on Tuesday in Jakarta.
