PETALING JAYA: A first appearance at the World Championships can be daunting, but Carmen Ting-Ong Xin Yee are taking it in their stride with little pressure on their shoulders.
The women's doubles pair made a winning start on their debut by beating Ukraine's Polina Buhrova-Yevheniia Kantemyr 21-17, 21-12 in the opening round at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi on Monday (Aug 17).
A much tougher test awaits them in the second round, where they will face Japan's world No. 2 pair Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto.
Fukushima-Matsumoto have been difficult opponents even for Carmen-Xin Yee's senior teammates Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah.
Pearly-Thinaah have lost their last three meetings against the Japanese pair, including at the same venue during the Indian Open in January.
Carmen-Xin Yee also know how tough Fukushima-Matsumoto can be, having lost 17-21, 8-21 to them at the All-England in March.
The young Malaysians, however, do not want to think too much about their opponents and are more focused on enjoying their first World Championships.
For us, this is our first time, so we don't want to think too much.
"We just want to play and enjoy the match. We're really excited because the scale of the tournament is huge, but like I said, we just want to enjoy the experience," said Xin Yee.
Carmen-Xin Yee also credited their victory over Buhrova-Kantemyr to how well they carried out the game plan laid down by coach Rosman Razak.
"We executed our tactics quite well. We just focused on playing our game and didn't think too much about other things," said Xin Yee.
"We tried to give our best and followed what the coach had told us. From there, it was about putting it into practice on court," added Carmen.
