KUALA LUMPUR – Underwhelming and still out of sync.
That is the honest opinion of Chan Peng Soon after he and his mixed doubles partner, Cheah Yee See, crashed out of the quarter-finals of the Vietnam Open 2022 last week.
Peng Soon-Yee See went down 19-21, 17-21 to India’s Rohan Kapoor-Reddy Sikki in their only quarter-final appearance in seven outings since the 2022 Indonesia Masters in June.
“Our confidence is low… always losing and we performed quite badly in the Vietnam Open. Although we have played in seven tournaments, there is still no chemistry between us.
“We are still struggling on the court, but we must persevere and work hard (to form a good partnership),” said Peng Soon, who clinched the Rio 2016 Olympic Games mixed doubles silver medal with Goh Liu Ying, after their training session here today.
Asked if he would switch to a new partner, Peng Soon said there was no need to do so as “I’m here to stay with Yee See at the moment”.
“I’ve got perhaps two years left before I retire. All I want to do is just seize every moment on the court with Yee See. Tired of changing partners… I bet there will be new challenges if I changed partner,” said the 34-year-old Peng Soon.
Last December, Peng Soon parted ways with Liu Ying after a 13-year combination, with the highlight of their long partnership being winning the mixed doubles silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Peng Soo has since paired up with Valeree Siow and Toh Ee Wei before settling on a partnership with Yee See.
Meanwhile, Yee See was also quick to admit that her partnership with Peng Soon was “unstable” as she is still adapting to the latter’s style of play.
“Our biggest problem is that Peng Soon and I are not on the same wavelength. But, of course, I think we need some more time to get better… hopefully it won’t take us a whole year to find chemistry,” she said.
In fact, Yee See is hoping that they will be able to get back to winning ways and regain their confidence in the three back-to-back European tournaments – Denmark Open (October 18-23); French Open (October 25-30); and Hylo Open in Germany (November 1-6). – Bernama, October 7, 2022
