FOCUS LOST DUE TO ‘BLURRY’ RULES
Constant warnings by service umpire unsettle pair
NATIONAL men’s doubles professional shuttler Goh V Shem could not hide his disappointment with a couple of calls and decisions by the match umpire after he and Tan Wee Kiong bowed out of the All England at the quarter-final stage on Friday.
The 2016 Rio Olympic Games silver medallist claimed that the service umpire’s constant warnings on how they executed their service caused them to momentarily lose focus, so much so they ended up going down rather tamely to World No 9 Muhammad Rian Ardianto-Fajar Alfian of Indonesia.
“Today (Friday) there were a couple of warnings made by the service umpire which disrupted our match rhythm. I feel that they just did not apply the right rules and regulations with regard to execution of service.
“Usually after the umpire gives out a warning I will take my service slightly lower, though during the match against the Indonesians, the umpire kept warning us and there was nothing much we could do about it.
“I am not trying to say that we lost because of the service. But the service umpire’s constant warnings disrupted our focus and concentration during the match,” he said when contacted.
In the quarter-final encounter, the World No 14 ranked Malaysian pair, who were the favourites to advance, were clearly not in their element. They were somewhat bothered throughout the match which only lasted for 39 minutes as they lost 22-20, 2112 at Muhammad Rian-Fajar’s hands.
Their latest setback extended their All England quarter-finals jinx to the third consecutive year after enduring a similar fate last year and the year before.
In fact, the latest result added to the woes of the 2019 Thailand Masters champions who went out as early as the first round itself at the Indonesia Masters in January.