Awesome duo: Karen Lyne Dick (left) and Tee Ai Xin continue to make the country proud.
PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles pair Tee Ai Xin-Karen Lyne Dick have notched a milestone for Malaysian table tennis after breaking into the top 50 in the world rankings.
The pair gained 11 spots to be ranked 44th in the women’s doubles rankings following their runner-up finish in the Vila Nova de Gaia tournament in Portugal on Sunday.
Ai Xin-Karen went down fighting 8-11, 9-11, 11-4, 12-14 to Croatia’s top seeds Jeger Mateja-Rakovac Lea in the final.
The Malaysian pair created a big upset in the semis by beating South Korean second seeds Kim Seong-jin-Yoo Ye-rin 12-10, 5-11, 11-7, 4-11, 11-7 and bundled out another Korean pair Ji Eun-chae-Heo Ye-rim 9-11, 12-10, 11-3, 15-13, 11-7 in the quarter-finals.
Malaysian team head coach Beh Lee Wei was pleased.
“We started sending out the players to compete in the World Tour events to improve on their world rankings and the improvement shows.
“Ai Xin-Karen fought very hard and were unlucky not to have won the final. This is a massive improvement as they were ranked outside the top 250 in the world rankings at the start of the year.
It was just in August when Ai Xin-Karen won their first World Tour event at the WTT Feeder Vientiane in Laos, making history as the first Malaysians to win a World Tour title.
Meanwhile, Ai Xin also picked up a second silver medal with Wong Qi Shen in the mixed doubles event after losing 6-11, 5-11, 4-11 to Spain’s Maria Xiao-Alvaro Robles and moved up five spots to No. 76.
Asian Championships bronze medallists and world No. 61 Qi Shen-Javen Choong’s campaign ended in the men’s doubles after losing 9-11, 4-11, 8-11 to Spaniards Daniel Berzosa-Juan Perez in the last eight.
It is an interesting development ahead of the Thailand SEA Games next month as Malaysia now have the second best ranked pair in the region for women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
The top ranked South-East Asian pair for women’s doubles are world No. 16 Thai pair Orawan Paranang-Suthasini Sawettabut while Singapore’s Zeng Jian-Koen Pang are the region’s highest ranked pair for mixed doubles at No. 52.
