No room for slacking
Shuttlers Mei Kuan-Meng Yean to treat every match as final at Asiad
By TAN MING WAI
PETALING JAYA: National women’s doubles pair Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean will treat every match like a final at the Indonesia Asian Games as they seek to emulate teammates Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei’s bronze medal feat in Incheon four years ago.
The women’s doubles contest features a starstudded field comprising seven out of the world top 10 pairs including world No. 1 and No. 2 Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota and Misaki MatsutomoAyaka Takahashi of Japan and world No. 3 Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan of China.
But the world No. 17 Mei Kuan-Meng Yean are out to show that they are no pushovers – just like how Vivian-Khe Wei did when they stunned twotime world champions Yu Yang-Wang Xiaoli of China en route to the last four.
Vivian-Khe Wei eventually lost to then top seeds Matsutomo-Takahashi to settle for joint third spot and clinched Malaysia’s first medal in the event after 44 years.
Mei Kuan-Meng Yean, who reached the last 16 at the World Championships in Nanjing two weeks ago, believe that winning Asiad medal may not be an impossible task provided they produce their best performance.
“Every shuttler goes to a tournament hoping to win a medal, who wouldn’t want to?” said Mei Kuan.
“We will never enter a competition filled with negativity, thinking we’re going to lose because the moment you step onto the court, it’s always a 50-50 chance.
“All you need to do is to play to the best of your ability and things will fall into place, that’s what we always believe.
“One thing for sure at this Asian Games, there won’t be any easy match with all the top pairs in the world are competing.
“So, we’re going to treat every match from the first round like a final.
“We’re the underdogs but we fear no one.” Mei Kuan-Meng Yean did show that they have what it takes to take on their more illustrious rivals.
In the first round of the Malaysian Open in June, they stretched reigning Olympic champions Matsutomo-Takahashi to 53 minutes before losing 16-21, 22-24.
A week later at the Indonesian Open, Mei KuanMeng Yean also gave then world No. 1 YifanQingchen a run for their money in their 20-22, 18-21 last-16 defeat.
Mei Kuan and Meng Yean are two of the four women’s shuttlers participating in Indonesia besides Goh Liu Ying and Shevon Lai Jemie in the mixed doubles.