Late entry, early rise
Last-minute inclusion Kah Ming-Juan Shen stun China’s world No. 11
LAST-MINUTE inclusion, no problem.
Independent pair Chooi Kah Ming-Low Juan Shen turned on the style to stun world No. 11 Tan Qiang-He Jiting of China in one of the biggest opening round upsets yesterday.
The world No. 43 pair, who were dropped from the national team in August last year, won 21-18, 24-22 to reach the last 16.
Their entry was only confirmed after the team managers’ meeting on Monday evening.
Kah Ming-Juan Shen, placed first in the reserve list, were promoted to the top-32 main draw following the withdrawal of India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty.
Juan Shen was delighted to have made the most of a rare start in the top-flight World Tour event.
“We were actually hopeful of gaining a spot after the Indian pair withdrew from the Indian Open last week, so we had already started preparing for it,” said Juan Shen.
“Despite facing much higher ranked opponents, we were determined to prove that we’re no pushovers.
“We got our tactics right and the home crowd were behind us which I think was the key to our win.
“To have cleared the first round by overcoming a top pair, we really couldn’t ask for a better start.”
The win over Tan Qiang-Jiting, last year’s China Open finalists, marked Kah Ming-Juan Shen’s only third career victory over a world top 15 pair.
Things are certainly looking up since they turned professional.
Apart from reaching the semi-finals of the Korean Open last September, they also won the lower-tier Laos International Series in February.