Wednesday March 6, 2013
V Shem: We’re confident we can go far
DOUBLES shuttler Goh V Shem (above) is almost always a picture of calm and poise. But that didn’t stop him from losing his cool when service-faulted five times at the German Open last week.
V Shem acknowledged that he had learnt much from his defeat with partner Lim Khim Wah against home favourites Ingo Kindervater-Johannes Schoettler last week. Now, they aim to come out stronger in the All-England, which begins today.
Although disappointed, the 23-year-old V Shem prefers to look at the German episode a blessing in disguise.
“Can you imagine being service-faulted at the first serve in the match? I was shocked. It was 1-1 and then, I was faulted again. I felt it was a bad call and that riled me up,” said V Shem.
“I tried to stay calm but when I continued to be the target of the match official, I couldn’t focus. My confidence was at its lowest and I just couldn’t get my game going.
“This incident, however, has helped me to appreciate my partner better. In the past, Khim Wah used to have problems with his service. Now, I understand what he had gone through.”
In fact, it was this lack of confidence in one another that saw their partnership being split for six months. The duo, however, made amends and came back strongly with a semi-final finish in the Malaysian Open in January.
V Shem said that it was high time that another pair stepped up at the All-England, besides 2007 All-England champions Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong.
“The focus for the last five years have been on Koo and Tan. Khim Wah and I will try to be more prominent this year,” he said.
“We’re confident we can go far if Khim Wah and I can strike it right. It will be great if we can make it an all-Malaysian affair in the semi-finals with Koo-Tan.”
V Shem-Khim Wah and second seeds Kien Keat-Boon Heong are in the lower half of the draw.
V Shem-Khim Wah will take on Japan’s Hirokatsu Hashimoto-Noriyasu Hirata in the first round today, with a likely second round clash against South Koreans Kim Ki-jung-Kim Sa-rang.
If they get past the Koreans, they’ll face the strongest Japanese pair – Hiroyuki Endo-Kenichi Hayakawa – in the last eight.
Kien Keat-Boon Heong also have a tricky path to the semi-finals. They take on England’s Chris Adcock-Andrew Ellis in the first round but their main challengers will be reigning German Open champions Hong Wei-Shen Ye of China in the last eight. The Malaysians lost to the Chinese pair in the second round of the All-England last year.
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