KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — Patience will be key for the country’s leading mixed doubles of Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei if they want to beat the 2021 World champions from Thailand, Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai, in the opening action of the 2024 All England in Birmingham, the United Kingdom, next month.
The country’s mixed doubles coach Nova Widianto said the pair, especially Chen, are always in a hurry to ‘kill’ for points based on the performance shown when they lost 12-21, 18-21 to their opponents in the final of the 2024 Thailand Masters earlier this month.
“I always ask them whether they can be patient to wait or not… the Thai game (of Dechapol-Sapsiree) is not too dangerous; theirs is just a defensive game, but it is strong.
“Our team’s strategy is to be patient, especially Tang Jie. He wants to kill the opponent’s (game) too quickly; I have said many times that he is too in a hurry, so he has to be patient and look for opportunities to kill them,” he said after their training session today.
Based on the record of past meetings in the last six matches so far, Chen-Toh have only won once against the pair, who are ranked sixth in the world, during the quarter-finals of the 2023 Arctic Open in October last year.
In the meantime, Nova is targeting his proteges, ranked ninth in the world, to at least reach the quarter-finals of the 2024 French Open in Paris (March 5 to March 10) before the 2024 All England competition (March 12 to March 17).
He said it is crucial for Chen-Toh to display an encouraging performance in the two tournaments to boost their ranking back to the top eight in the world, thus brightening the opportunity to be among the top eight in upcoming tournaments.
The duo opened the curtain of the 2024 French Open against compatriots Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing, also a professional pair.
Meanwhile, Nova hopes that Toh will be able to fully recover from the right hand injury suffered during the 2024 Thailand Masters, ahead of the two tournaments in Europe.
“I think they are ready but if the playing conditions (still) are not good, they have to bite the bullet and fight,” he said.
— Bernama
