China’s mixed doubles Feng Yanzhe-Huang Dongping in action against USA’s Vinson Chiu-Jennie Gai in the first round of Malaysian Masters at Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil on Wednesday. - IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
IT WILL be an uphill battle for Huang Dongping-Feng Yanzhe in the second round of the Malaysian Masters today, and the China mixed doubles pair are having cold sweat.
The world No. 8 pair had to dig deep to defeat world No. 34 Vinson Chiu-Jennie Gai of the United States 21-10, 14-21, 21-9 in the first round at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
They will meet Indonesia’s world No. 15 Dejan Ferdinansyah-Gloria Emanuelle in the second round today.
Despite being ranked higher, Dongping-Yanzhe are not letting their guard down as none of the pairs hold an advantage when it comes to the head-to-head record.
Dongping-Yanzhe overcame the Indonesian pair 21-18, 21-11 in the quarter-finals of the Thailand Masters in March, but went down fighting 18-21, 14-21 in the Badminton Asia Championships (BAC) last month.
“Tomorrow’s (today’s) match will be a tough one compared to the previous ones, but it’s okay as long as we take it one game at a time and do our best in every game,” said Dongping.
“As all of you can see, our form and performance are not consistent and full of ups and downs. So, I’m not sure how we’ll perform in tomorrow’s (today’s) match.”
Even though they have cleared the first hurdle, Dongping has mixed feelings about their performance.
“I can’t say that our overall performance was very poor, because we are not fully prepared in terms of our emotional state and getting into our groove,” said Dongping.
“This was our first match and was the most difficult for us as the Sudirman Cup ended only a few days ago, and we only arrived yesterday. However, we were able to adjust our form on time and we have shown improvement in dealing with challenges.
“We have quite high expectations of ourselves, so we will feel bad if we make mistakes or our performance falls short.”
Dongping formed a permanent partnership with Yanzhe after her former partner, Wong Yilyu suffered a waist injury and had to retire from the national team after the Indian Open, where they finished second in January.
Dongping-Yanzhe got off to a good start as they claimed the Indonesian Masters, Thailand Masters and German Open titles before suffering first-round exits in the All-England and the BAC.
