Determined duo: Man Wei Chong (left) and Tee Kai Wun gave a rousing show to hold their seniors and defending champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik by the jugular before losing 23-21, 17-21, 16-21 in the second round of the Denmark Open.
ODENSE: It was not a fairy-tale ending for youngsters Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun in the Denmark Open but they know their time to shine will come soon.
And their single-minded determination is good news for Malaysia.
World No. 15 Wei Chong-Kai Wun gave a rousing show to hold their seniors and defending champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik by the jugular before losing 23-21, 17-21, 16-21 in the men’s doubles second round at the Jyske Bank Arena in Odense on Thursday.
It was one of their best performances but Wei Chong-Kai Mun were still disappointed.
“We started well but we could not maintain it. We have to raise the quality of our game further,” said Kai Wun.
“The gap is still there with our seniors and we plan to catch up.
“They are more experienced and were brave to take the risks at the crucial stage and we have to learn to improve on this area.”
The duo have won Super 300 tournaments - the Syed Modi International and Taiwan Open in 2022 - and are now looking at winning higher ranked tournaments. They came close at the Indonesian Open this year but lost to China stars Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang in the final.
Wei Chong said: “Our time will come to win the big titles but we have to continue with our hard work.
‘‘We will compete in the Kumamoto Masters in Japan next (Nov).”
Aaron-Wooi Yik was proud of Wei Chong-Kai Wun’s determination to win.
“They really put lots of pressure on us.
‘‘It’s good to have another pair in Malaysia who is hungry for success,” said Aaron.
“Currently, we have five pairs in the top 30 ranking in the world, which is really good.”
World No. 4 and Olympic Games bronze medal winner Aaron-Wooi Yik will next play Chen Boyang-Liu Yi of China for a place in the semis.
Earlier, Wan Arif Wan Junaidi-Yap Roy King went down 14-21, 7-21 to second seeds Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark in the second round.
It was a good day for Malaysia in the women’s doubles as Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah put up a brilliant fight to reach the quarter-finals.
They made a stellar comeback to beat South Korea’s world No. 14 Lee Yu-lim-Shin Seung-chan 20-22, 21-18, 21-16 in 80 minutes to set up a meeting against Japan’s Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanashi next.
It was sweet revenge for the world No. 7 Malaysians after having lost to the Koreans in the Malaysian Masters this year.
“We beat the Japanese in a long duel at last week’s Arctic Open (semi-finals) and we expect another marathon match,” said Thinaah.
Malaysia’s challenge, however, is over in the mixed doubles with the defeats of Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin and Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing respectively.
