PETALING JAYA: Shuttler Teoh Mei Xing is remaining upbeat despite the tough road ahead for her and Anna Cheong in their bid to rediscover their best form.
Mei Xing and Anna returned to competitive action together in the women’s doubles at last month’s World Championships in Copenhagen after the latter’s long layoff due to an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.
Anna had to undergo surgery for a rupture in the ACL in her right leg last November.
She and Mei Xing lost 13-21, 11-21 to Thailand’s world No. 9 Jongkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajongjai in the second round of the world meet.
Mei Xing was pleased to compete again with Anna after such a long time but acknowledged that the pair had lots of work to do to close the gap on the world’s top pairs.
“It was a good experience for both of us to play again after so long,” said Mei Xing.
“It did not turn out as well as we expected but we learned a lot and we will try to keep on overcoming our weaknesses.
‘’We need to work on a few aspects of our game like our defence, speed and power when we are attacking.”
Anna-Mei Xing’s next assignment is the China Open from Sept 5-10 in Changzhou.
The pair have a tricky opening round match against Indonesia’s world No. 15 Febriana Dwipuji-Amalia Cahaya.
Febriana-Amalia captured the SEA Games individual gold in Cambodia in May and are currently the second ranked pair in their country behind world No. 8 Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti.
If Anna-Mei Xing manage to overcome the Indonesians, they will face either homesters and World Championships bronze medallists Zhang Shuxian-Zheng Yu or Japan’s Swiss Open and Orleans Masters champions Rena Miyaura-Ayako Sakuramoto in the second round.
Meanwhile, the other Malaysian pairs in the fray are national No. 1 Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah and independent duo Vivian Hoo-Lim Chiew Sien.
Pearly-Thinaah will open their campaign against Holland’s Debora Jille-Cheryl Seinen while Vivian-Chiew Sien will play Japan’s Rui Hirokami-Yuna Kato.
