The spur to get better: Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei can’t be too comfortable as they need to raise their game further to remain as the No. 1 in the country.
PETALING JAYA: A healthy competition is developing among the mixed doubles shuttlers in the country and national coach Nova Widianto believes this is a positive sign for his charges.
While national No. 1 and world No. 9 Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei have been the more consistent pair since they were combined at the end of 2022, teammates Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin and independent pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie have also improved this year.
Soon Huat, 34 and Shevon, 31 especially have been impressive this year and reached three finals so far, winning the Swiss Open and Malaysian Masters before finishing runners-up in the China Open last month.
Their form despite their age has seen them move up to No. 10 in the world and they are now breathing down the necks of Tang Jie-Ee Wei.
Pang Ron-Su Yin, who were only combined a year ago, have also found some consistency after struggling initially.
The pair made it into back-to-back quarter-finals in the Hong Kong and China Opens before reaching the last four in the Macau Open last month.
Pang Ron-Su Yin moved up to No. 28 in the latest rankings and are showing signs that they could become a strong back-up pair behind Tang Jie-Ee Wei in the coming months.
Nova believes the competition among the pairs could spur them on to greater heights.
“It’s good to see Soon Huat-Shevon performing so well this year. Pang Ron-Su Yin are also improving now and this is a healthy competition between our pairs that can push them to become better,” said Nova after overseeing a training session at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara yesterday.
Stepping up fast: Hoo Pang Ron and Cheng Su Yin are showing signs that they can become a strong back-up pair behind Tang Jie-Ee Wei in the coming months.
“Tang Jie-Ee Wei will not be too comfortable and they know that they need to raise their game further to remain as the No. 1 in the country.
“It’s good to see this improvement in the mixed doubles in Malaysia.”
Both Tang Jie-Ee Wei, who captured the Korean Open title in August, and Soon Huat-Shevon are on course to qualify for the prestigious World Tour Finals from Dec 11-15 in Hangzhou.
The former are currently second in the Race to Hangzhou rankings while the latter is third.
Only the top eight pairs will make the cut.
Meanwhile, Nova is optimistic that Tang Jie-Ee Wei, who are currently sidelined due to the latter’s hand injury, can return in time for the back-to-back Japan Masters (Nov 12-17) and China Masters (Nov 19-24).
“We registered Tang Jie-Ee Wei for the Korean Masters (Nov 5-10) as well as the tournaments in Japan and China but their participation in Korea depends on Ee Wei’s recovery,” said Nova.
“I believe there is a good chance for her to make her comeback in Japan if she does not fully recover before the Korean tourney.”
Meanwhile, in the Arctic Open quarter-finals yesterday, Soon Huat-Shevon defeated Pang Ron-Su Yin 21-19, 21-15 to reach the last four.
They will likely face China’s world No. 3 Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin next for a place in the final.
