PETALING JAYA: Mixed doubles pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie were left frustrated after a controversial red card incident played a part in their quarter-final exit at the Indonesian Open yesterday.
The incident occurred with the match tied at 20-20 in the deciding game when Indonesian umpire Helen Purnama Sari showed Soon Huat a red card for delaying play, handing a crucial point to the French pair.
Under the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) latest regulations, players are given only 25 seconds before play must resume.
Soon Huat-Shevon admitted the incident disrupted their rhythm as they eventually went down 21-15, 18-21, 20-22 to defending champions Thom Gicquel-Delphine Delrue of France.
The defeat also denied the Malaysians a first semi-final appearance since the Indian Open in January last year.
“We know this French pair are very good at disrupting their opponents’ momentum and putting together a run of points. We were prepared for that and knew we could not afford to let our guard down,” said Shevon in a post match interview with BWF.
“At 20-20, we were ready to reset, get back into our rhythm and start again, but everything happened so quickly after that.
“I would say it is really unacceptable now to lose that way. If we were to lose in a hard-fought match without any disruption, I would accept it and respect that. But to lose in this manner, I really cannot accept it.”
Also bowing out in the quarter-finals were women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, who went down 20-22, 16-21 to Japan’s Rui Hirokami-Sayaka Hobara at the Istora Senayan in Jakarta.
Last year’s runners-up were below their best and suffered their first defeat to the Japanese pair after winning their previous two meetings.
Despite the disappointment, Pearly was relieved to come through the match unscathed after recently recovering from a back injury.
“First of all, of course I’m disappointed to lose the match, but I’m happy to finish it safely and know that my recovery is progressing well,” said Pearly.
“We need to go back and discuss what happened. As always, there are many areas we need to improve on after a defeat.
“There were a lot of things both of us did not do well today. Credit to our opponents because they put us under a lot of pressure and we did not have enough solutions to deal with it.”
