No more early exits
Yew Sin-Ee Yi vow to break first-round jinx at HK Open
PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttlers Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi are confident of ending their first-round losing streak when they play in the Hong Kong Open next week.
The worldNo. 29 pair narrowly fell to Japanese pair Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi 19-21, 21-11, 16-21 in the Denmark Open last month.
Yew Sin-Ee Yi then had to face world No. 12 pair Liao Min-chun-Su Ching-heng of Taiwan in the French Open where they again lost 16-21, 21-17, 16-21 a week later.
But now the duo are fired up to settle the score with Hoki-Kobayashi as they clash again in the first round in Hong Kong.
“We will go to Hong Kong prepared as we know our opponents better now. We’ll give our best to fight and try to get our revenge,” said Ee Yi.
“And we believe we can get past the first round this time and defeat them.”
Should they defeat the Japanese pair, it will only get tougher as they will likely take on world No. 4 Chen Hung-ling-Wang Chi-lin of Taiwan in the second round.
“It’s a tough draw, so we have to take it one match at a time and concentrate on our first hurdle. Every tournament is tough but now we’re feeling good.”
But Ee Yi believes his experience of playing in the Hong Kong Open the last two years will be a big help.
In 2016, with Yew Sin, they made it to the quarter-finals before losing to Danish veterans Matthias Boe-Carsten Mogensen and in
2017, he partnered Goh V Shem where they fell in the first round to current world No. 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya
Sukamuljo of Indonesia.
“The draught there is quite strong, but I think we can handle it. We will just follow what we have learnt in training and follow what our coaches have told us,” he said.