Tan Bin Shen: ‘We used to see Izzuddin (back) and Sze Fei play together, so I’m hoping to see new sparks and games from the new pairs.’
PETALING JAYA: National men’s doubles coach Tan Bin Shen wants his newly-paired charges to focus on improving their performances instead of focusing too much on their rankings.
There was a reshuffle in the men’s doubles department after Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani decided to end their eight-year partnership last month.
Sze Fei has formed a new partnership with Choong Hon Jian while Wan Arif Wan Junaidi partnered Yap Roy King after his former partner, Mohd Haikal Nazri was combined with Izzuddin.
Bin Shen does not set any target for their rankings because he believes that showing progress is more important.
“We used to see Izzuddin and Sze Fei play together, so I’m hoping to see new sparks and games from the new pairs,” he said.
“In terms of rankings, I didn’t set a target for them.
“Their partnerships are still in their early stages, so I want them to perform well, achieve good results in tournaments and from there, their rankings will improve.
“I want to see progress and improvements in their performance,” said Bin Shen.
All three new pairs will start their journey together at the Thailand International Challenge from March 7-12, before competing in the China Masters (March 14-19), Vietnam International Challenge (March 21-26) and Osaka International Challenge (March 29-April 2).
Bin Shen said he is using the tournaments to assess their performance and hopes that they can win some International Challenge titles.
“We hope they can win because they’re competing in lower tier tournaments.
“International Challenge and Super 100 events are not as high level as Super 500 or 750 tournaments, so I want them to achieve some good results,” said Bin Shen.
Roy King and Hon Jian have double duty as they are also playing in the mixed.
The former partnered Valeree Siow while the latter does not have a permanent partner after mixed doubles head coach Nova Widianto tried him out with Go Pei Kee and Yap Ling.
