PETALING JAYA: Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie have a Chinese jinx to break if they are to reach the quarter-finals of the World Championships in New Delhi.
The mixed doubles pair will take on Zhang Chi-Cheng Xing today, with a place in the last eight at stake.
Soon Huat-Shevon have won three of their five previous meetings against the Chinese pair, including at the Malaysian Open last year.
But their record against Chinese opponents this year tells a different story.
The husband-and-wife pair have yet to beat a Chinese combination in 2026, with their latest defeat coming against Guo Xinwa-Chen Fanghui in the second round of the China Open.
A week earlier, Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin had also beaten them in the second round of the Japan Open, having already got the better of the Malaysians at the All-England in March.
At the same venue in January, Feng Yanzhe-Huang Dongping ended Soon Huat-Shevon’s Indian Open campaign in the quarter-finals.
Soon Huat-Shevon will need to buck that trend if they are to avoid another third-round exit, having also fallen at the same stage of last year’s world meet in Paris.
Shevon said they had put in several good weeks of preparation in Malaysia, with particular attention given to their physical condition.
“When our body condition is good, I think it gives us a bit more advantage and we feel more confident no matter who we come up against. Coming here, I think we had a really good few weeks of preparation back in Malaysia.
“We also made some extra changes to our routines and things like that to prepare for the World Championships,” Shevon told the BWF.
Soon Huat-Shevon reached the third round after beating Americans Chen Zhi Yi-Francesca Corbett 21-15, 21-16 yesterday.
They had gone into the match wary of Zhi Yi-Corbett after the Americans stunned world No. 26 Kim Jae-hyeon-Jang Ha-jeong in the opening round a day earlier.
“I think we had to come a bit more prepared because our opponents had a match yesterday, so they had already tested the courts before us.
“I think in that sense they had a bit of an upper hand and they played a really good match against the Koreans. We actually thought we would probably meet the Koreans, but they did a really good job.
“Thankfully, we managed to adapt to the conditions really quickly and my partner controlled the rhythm and momentum of the game really well,” added Shevon.
