KUALA LUMPUR – National women’s doubles pair Anna Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing exacted revenge upon Japanese pair Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara today in the second round of the Malaysia Masters.
The Malaysians, who are only ranked 37 in the world, brought down their sixth-ranked opponents in a 21-11, 21-15 upset under 38 minutes.
“We had considered what we lack during our match with Japan last week and tried to make up for it today,” said Anna when met after the match at the Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil.
Anna-Mei Xing had met the Japanese pair in the quarter-final of the recently concluded Malaysia Open where they lost in straight sets.
“Last week we lost because we were not mentally strong enough when they caught up to our points.
“Today, when they tried to do the same thing with one to two points ahead of us, we controlled our pressure and hit back at them.
“We could see them feeling a bit down and did not give them the chance to advance,” Mei Xing explained.
Anna-Mei Xing are not out of the woods yet as today’s victory sets them up against another higher-ranked pair – world number 11 pair Jeong Na Eun-Kim Hye Jeong of South Korea – in the quarter-final tomorrow.
Another upset came from their compatriots, 10th-ranked Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, after they worked up a sweat against Sayaka Hirota-Yuki Fukushima of Japan (ranked second) 21-14, 21-19 to secure a spot at the last eight round.
“Our win today really helped boost our motivation and thanks to our fans for their support too. There are still things that we need to improve to play better tomorrow,” said Thinaah.
Pearly added that the encouragement they gave each other also helped them to play better.
“It is important that we maintain our composure and not rush the game. When that happens, we would have a lot of mistakes,” Pearly added.
The Malaysians will face Indonesia’s Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti next, whom they had lost to in the semis of the Indonesia Masters in June.
In the mixed doubles category, Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie were the only Malaysians to book a quarter-final berth after crushing Indonesia’s Hafiz Faizal-Serena Kani in a straightforward 21-15, 22-20.
Fifteenth-ranked Soon Huat-Shevon will set up a clash against second seeds and world number one pair Zheng Si Wei-Huang Ya Qiong of China.
Three other pairs – Hoo Pang Ron-Toh Ee Wei, Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See, and Chen Tang Jie-Valeree Siow – were denied progress. – The Vibes, July 7, 2022
