Vivian-Mei Kuan face litmus test in quarter-finals
SCRATCH women’s doubles pair Vivian HooChow Mei Kuan will face their first real test in the quarter-finals at the Carrara Sports and Leisure Centre today.
Vivian-Mei Kuan will face Chloe Birch-Jessica Pugh of England for a place in the semi-finals.
Yesterday, they defeated Rachel HonderichKristen Tsai of Canada 21-17, 21-16 to join Soniia Cheah-Shevon Lai Jemie in the quarter-finals.
Soniia-Shevon will face top seeds Setyana Mapasa-Gronya Somerville of Australia.
Vivian said the competition in the women’s doubles was unique as all the title contenders were not original pairs.
“Most of us are not regular pairs. India and England have also fielded new pairs,” said Vivian.
“We don’t really know each other’s strength – and that makes it quite tricky. Every match can go either way.”
If they win, they will likely meet second seeds Ashwini Ponnappa-Reddy N. Sikki.
At the last Games in Glasgow in 2014, VivianWoon Khe Wei defeated Ashwini-Jwala Gupta of India in the final for the gold medal.
“Mei Kuan and I have not been tested yet. We did not play in most of the mixed team ties. Hopefully, we’ll get better in every match,” she added.
It was a perfect record for Malaysia in the men’s doubles and mixed doubles when all four pairs – Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong, Chan Peng Soon-Goh Soon Huat, Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying and Soon Huat-Shevon – marched into the quarter-finals.
Out of the four, only Peng Soon-Soon Huat were stretched when they fought valiantly to beat Chris Adcock-Ben Lane of England 12-21, 21-13, 21-7 in the third round yesterday.