Tough fight: Ong Yew Sin (left) and Teo Ee Yi in action against China’s He Jiting and Ren Xiangyu during the semi-final match. — AFP
PETALING JAYA: A four-month break seem to have done men’s doubles shuttlers Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi a world of good.
Yew Sin-Ee Yi decided to take a break in April after missing out on qualifying for the Paris Olympics.
The pair were hampered by a knee injury to Ee Yi during the Olympic qualification period.
Ee Yi, who used the break to recover from his injury, believes their semi-final appearance in the China Open was a positive outing for the pair.
“We took a break for four months and we just came back and we managed to reach the semi-finals. This is quite positive for us,” Ee Yi told the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
“This means a lot to me as I was injured and just recovered fully. I just wanted to go all out on court and have no regrets.
“We did well in this tournament and we will keep improving our game after this.”
Yew Sin-Ee Yi dropped from No. 12 in the world in the beginning of the year to No. 23 but are expected to move up again after their encouraging performance in China.
The independent pair made their competitive return after the Olympics last month and did take a little time to find their footing again.
Yew Sin-Ee Yi lost in the early rounds of the Opens in Japan and Hong Kong earlier before turning around their form superbly in China.
The duo toppled the likes of Indonesia’s world No. 6 Fajar Alfian-Rian Aridanto and Taiwan’s world No. 10 Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan before losing 18-21, 11-21 to world No. 7 homesters He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu in Changzhou on Saturday.
Despite the defeat, Yew Sin-Ee Yi can take heart after reaching their second semi-final this year after the German Open in March where they were also beaten by Jiting-Xiangyu.
The pair will next compete in the back-to-back Arctic Open (Oct 8-13) in Finland and Denmark Open (Oct 15-20) in Odense.
