Rejuvenated Vivian-Khe Wei eye European high
PETALING JAYA: Women’s doubles pair Vivian Hoo-Woon KheWei are “recharged and refreshed” after a month-long break.
The world No. 13 suffered a slump in form between March and June before rediscovering their touch in August to win the New Zealand Open.
They also finished with a silver (team) at the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games. Only an untimely abdominal muscle injury to Vivian prevented the pair from doing better than a bronze in the individual event.
Now that they’ve had a good rest, Vivian-Khe Wei are hoping to kick off from where they left off with a double header in Europe – starting with the Denmark Open (Oct 17-22) and the French Open (Oct 24-29).
“We’re actually quite satisfied with the way we played during the SEA Games, especially since we weren’t playing so well before that,” said Khe Wei.
“We really fought hard during the Games and it was just unfortunate that Vivian was injured.
“What’s important was that we really worked on our flaws – the tactical aspect. We just need to be more consistent on court.
“We’ve also had good rest since and Vivian is in better shape now.
“As for training, we’ve been going through higher intensity sessions and we’ll be prepared to do a lot better this time.”
Vivian-Khe Wei have only competed at the Denmark Open in Odense twice – in 2015 and 2016. Both times they only made it until the second round.
They certainly have another daunting task ahead as they’ve been drawn against world No. 7 and fifth seeds Huang Dongping-Li Yinhui of China in the first round.
World No. 22 Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean, the other Malaysian pair in the fray, are up against India’s Ashwini Ponnappa-N. Sikki Reddy in the opening round.