In prime position: Goh Soon Huat and Shevon Lai Jemie (left) are ranked at No. 8 in the race for spots to the Paris Olympics.
PETALING JAYA: The battle among Malaysian mixed doubles pairs has seen a drastic change with independent combination Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie taking the lead in the Olympics race.
And Soon Huat-Shevon are hoping to keep it that way by serving up a strong performance at the Asian Championships starting today in Dubai.
The duo are currently ranked at No. 8 following their runners-up finish at the Swiss Open in Basel last month.
Another professional pair Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing were the more consistent performers after being in the top 10 for more than a year but a string of poor results have seen them dropping to world No. 13.
Soon Huat-Shevon hope to consolidate their position for several good reasons.
“We are eyeing a good start here to win more points to maintain our world ranking since it’s a super 1000 but we are also using it to prepare for the coming Sudirman Cup,” said Shevon.
They face a tricky first round clash against Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei-Lee Chia-hs and may meet either Hong Kong’s Reginald Lee Chun Hei-Ng Tsz Yau or China’s Cheng Xing Chen Fanghui in the second round.
Victories in the preliminary rounds will likely to pit them against former world champions Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taeratanachai of Thailand in the quarter-finals.
As for the struggling Kian Meng-Pei Jing, luck is not on their side as they will play high-riding Swiss Open champions Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin in their opening match.
Kian Meng-Pei Jing are not only in a battle of their lives to return to the top eight but they have to face the enormous pressure from young Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei, who have shown in recent times that they are capable of unseating one of the independent pairs to win their ticket to the Paris Olympics.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei had defeated both Hong-wei-Chia-hsin (final) and Zhenbang-Taxin (quarter-finals) en route to winning the Orleans Masters in France two weeks ago and will be looking for another breakthrough in Dubai.
They play South Koreans Kim Won-ho-Jeong Na-eun in the first round and are expected to meet Indonesians Praveen Jordan-Melati Daeva next.
Another independent pair Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See will meet qualifiers in the opener.
Meanwhile, the men’s doubles scene has been dominated by many rising pairs this year with world No. 1 Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto of Indonesia being the only top five combination to win two titles – the Malaysian Open (January) and the All-England (March).
This explains the open but a difficult competition where it has become difficult to predict doubles winners.
National doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky is not expecting miracles from his pairs but wants them to bring their true abilities in Dubai.
“It’s an open field and any pair in the top 20 is capable of winning the title. It is hard to predict who will rise to the occasion,” said Rexy.
“I just want to see our pairs playing the same way as they perform in training.”
Malaysia will be banking on world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun, Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi and Kian Meng-Tan Wee Kiong.
