PETALING JAYA: Coach Hoon Thien How hopes a reshuffle in the women’s doubles department will pay off.
National pairs Valeree Siow-Go Pei Kee and twin sisters Cheng Su Hui-Cheng Su Yin have been split up recently in an effort to raise the levels of the players.
Pei Kee has since been combined with Low Yeen Yuan while Su Hui has been paired with Carmen Ting.
Valeree and Su Yin, meanwhile, have been given room to focus solely on the mixed doubles with Yap Roy King and Hoo Pang Ron respectively.
“Many of our women’s doubles pairs are lacking in strength and this makes it difficult for them to compete against the other countries,” said Thien How.
“Both Su Hui and Su Yin are small sized and it’s not easy for them to play well together.
“This has been reflected in their results which have not been good.
“So, we decided to split them up and combine Su Hui with Carmen for now.
“Carmen joined the senior set-up a few months ago and is only 17. We are trying out this partnership first and will monitor their progress before deciding whether to pair them up permanently,” added Thien How.
Meanwhile, Thien How believes that Su Yin has a brighter future in the mixed doubles.
“Su Yin proved her potential in mixed doubles by winning a silver with Yap Roy King in the Cambodia SEA Games (in May),” said Thien How.
“We discussed with coaching director Rexy (Mainaky) to play her in mixed doubles where she has the capabilities to do well.”
On combining Pei Kee with Yeen Yuan, Thien How said: “We want to give Valeree a chance to focus on mixed doubles with Roy King.
“Hopefully, Pei Kee and Yeen Yuan can do well together.”
Pei Kee-Yeen Yuan have work ahead of them if they hope to establish themselves as a permanent pairing after they went down 17-21, 11-21 to Taiwan’s world No. 23 Lee Chia-hsin-Teng Chun-hsun in the first round of the Syed Modi International in Lucknow.
Pei Kee also suffered an early exit in the mixed doubles along with Choong Hon Jian after losing 17-21, 13-21 to Japan’s world No. 24 Yuki Kaneko-Misaki Matsutomo.
Pang Ron-Su Yin, though, made it to the quarter-finals after sweeping aside home qualifiers Nitin Kumar-Navdha Manglam 21-13, 21-13. They will take on Taiwan’s world No. 34 Chang Ko-chi-Lee Chih-chen for a place in the last four today.
It was the end of the road though for Roy King-Valeree, who went down fighting 21-16, 17-21, 15-21 to Singapore’s 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games champions Terry Hee-Jessica Tan.
