KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 — Two upset wins in a row for China’s women’s doubles pair, Zhang Shu Xian – Zheng Yu in the 2022 Malaysia Open so far.
After ousting seventh-seeded Thai pair Jongkolphan Kititharakul – Rawinda Prajongjai in the first round yesterday, the unseeded Chinese duo continued their fine run to send the national number one pair, Pearly Tan – M. Thinaah packing in the second round today.
The world number 33 Shu Xian – Yu managed to weather the rousing support from home fans in the nearly-packed Axiata Arena by defeating Pearly-Thinaah, ranked 10th best in the world, 21 – 19, 21 – 14, in their first-ever meeting.
Pearly – Thinaah had themselves to blame as they blew away the opportunity to drag the game into the decider after enjoying a 12-8 lead in the second set before their impatient display following that dashed their hopes to reach the last eight tomorrow.
Speaking after the match, Thinaah said they should have not entertained the opponents’ gameplay and stuck to their offensive mode as opposed to today’s defensive play.
“We also have to be more patient. Even though we led them, they appeared to be calmer and did well on their part to win the game,” she told reporters at the mixed zone.
In the meantime, Pearly said they will go back to the drawing board and analyse what went wrong in this tournament so as not to repeat the same mistakes in future tournaments including the upcoming Malaysia Masters and Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, next month.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s challenge in the mixed doubles category halted after both Goh Soon Huat – Shevon Lai Jemie and Chen Tang Jie – Valeree Siow were knocked out in the second round.
Soon Huat – Shevon blew away their first set win, 21 – 10, going down to South Korea’s Kim Won Ho- Jeong Na Eun in the next two sets, 18 – 21, 17 – 21 while Tang Jie – Valeree lost to second-seeded, Zheng Si Wei – Huang Ya Qiong of China, 21 – 15, 21 – 10.
In the post-match interview, Shevon shared that it was extremely frustrating for them not to be able to go further and what more add another title in their career, after all their preparations before this tournament began.
“We have done our very best, especially in training, we tried so many various ways to improve ourselves and even ways we have never done before.
“It makes it even more frustrating as we failed to make another breakthrough in this tournament,” she said.
— Bernama
