Vivian-Khe Wei vow to deliver gold despite recent slump
PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles pair Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei hope to live up to expectations and deliver the promised SEA Games gold medal in badminton.
The Badminton Association of Malaysia ( BAM) are counting on them to win a gold at the KL Games despite the world No. 14 suffered a slump in form this year.
But Vivian-Khe Wei believe they can deal with the pressure and deliver the goods, having won gold in Myanmar 2013 and silver in Singapore 2015.
“There’s less than a month to go to the Games and we’re quite excited. We’re pumped up to do well on home ground. We want to win badly,” said Vivian.
“This year’s Games will be very different compared to when we won in Myanmar. Then, we were the underdogs.
“Now we must win although our results this year haven’t been so good. There’s more pressure this time compared to the previous two Games.
“Our main rivals will again be the Thai and Indonesian pairs, who we have played so many times already.
“We’ve been focused in our training for the past month and it’s important that we go out and play as if there’s nothing to lose.”
Vivian-Khe Wei, whose last outing was the Indonesian Open in June, will use the New Zealand Open in Auckland from Aug 1-5 to get back into rhythm.
The top-seeded pair should cruise into the semi-finals, where they are expected to meet third seeds Ashwini Ponnappa-N. Sikki Reddy of India.
“We haven’t played in any tournaments for a while, so we’re really looking forward to getting some match fitness in Auckland,” said Vivian.
“It would be good if we can do well there to boost our confidence before the SEA Games.”
The other Malaysian women’s doubles pair in the fray are Goh Yea Ching-Joyce Choong, who will meet Indonesians Jesica Muljati-Yulia Yosephin Susanto in the first round.