Hoo and Cheah keep fingers crossed for Bangkok

PETALING JAYA: Mixed doubles pair Hoo Pang Ron-Cheah Yee See are hoping Lady Luck will smile on them as they seek to make the cut for the Asian legs of the World Tour in Bangkok next month.

The pair have an outside chance to make the 32-pair field for both the top-tier meets as they are currently ranked 35th in the world.

And their hopes of returning to the court since the Thailand Masters in January have been boosted by the news that at least one pair – Indonesia’s world No. 20 Tontowi Ahmad-Winny Oktavina Kandow – will not turn up in Bangkok.

Tontowi, who won the Rio Olympics gold with Liliyana Natsir, has hung up his racquet in May.

They will be waiting anxiously to know if there are any more pairs opting out of the tournaments that will be held alongside the season-ending World Tour Finals in a bubble system.

The entry deadline is on Dec 8 and the list of participants will be released on Dec 11.

Also hoping to gain from the retirement of other top players during the Covid-19 pandemic would be independent shuttler Liew Daren and women’s doubles pair Pearly TanM. Thinaah.

Daren, ranked 41st, has submitted his entry and is hoping for the best following the retirement of two-time Olympics champion Lin Dan of China and Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen, who bade farewell at the Denmark Open in October.

World No. 39 Pearly-Thinaah are also hopeful that the retirement of Rio Olympics champion Ayaka Takahashi could pave the way for them in the doubles competition.

As it stands, those assured of their starts in Bangkok are world No. 10 Lee Zii Jia in the men’s singles; No. 9 Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, No. 14 Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong, No. 15 Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi and No. 28 Goh Sze FeiNur Izzuddin Rumsani (men’s doubles); No. 29 Soniia Cheah (women’s singles); No. 15 Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean and No. 25 Vivian Hoo-Yap Cheng Wen (women’s doubles); No. 7 Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying, No. 11 Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing and No. 12 Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie.