Great year: Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin of Malaysia celebrate on the court after defeating Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia in the men's doubles badminton semi-finals match at the World Tour Finals in Hangzhou. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
PETALING JAYA: It was not a perfect ending for professionals Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani in the season finale World Tour Finals but they can be very proud of themselves.
The world No. 7 fought hard before losing 17-21, 21-17, 11-21 in 65 minutes to Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark in THE men's doubles final in Hangzhou, China on Dec 15 (Sunday).
They took home US$100,000 (RM443,000), which is their biggest prize money to date.
It has been an exceptional year for Sze Fei-Izzuddin since they got back together early this year and after leaving the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) set up in August.
Sze Fei-Izzuddin have captured the China, Japan and Arctic Opens and finishing runners-up in the Asian Championships and now the Tour Finals and will deservedly become the new top pair in the country.
They are set to end Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik's six-year reign as the national No. 1. The former world champions Aaron-Wooi Yik had been leading at the top since they took over from Tan Wee Kiong-Goh V Shem in 2019.
Izzuddin was pleased with his performance with Sze Fei this year.
"This season has been very good for us. We achieved what we never did before," Izzuddin told the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
"I will rate our performance as 10 out of 10. We hope we can do even better next year. We need to be more consistent, patient and become all-rounded players."
On their performance in the Finals, Sze Fei said: "In the final, we couldn't use the right strategy against the Danes. They messed up our rotation today and they were more patient.
"But to be honest, we didn't expect to even reach the final. We are very grateful to our team for all they did for us and without them and our supporters, I don't think we will have been able to do it."
Sze Fei-Izzuddin will compete next in the Malaysian Open from Jan 7-12 at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.
