Soon Huat-Shevon out to prove their worth in Guangzhou

KUALA LUMPUR: National mixed doubles pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie will be out to redeem themselves after winning the right to represent Malaysia in the World Tour Finals in Guangzhou, China, from Dec 12-16.

The national No. 2 pair were in danger of missing the cut but fortunately, no other pairs have overtaken them in the Race to Guangzhou rankings.

In the final list released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, the duo finished at the seventh place.

Only the top eight qualify for the Finals and Soon Huat-Shevon will join their teammates Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying, who finished fourth.

The duo had waited anxiously for the last two weeks and now, they can breathe a sigh of relief.

“We are so excited to qualify for this major event finally. I’m glad two Malaysian pairs have made it. There will be pressure to deliver and we’re quite nervous but we’ll be well prepared,” said Shevon.

Shevon said it would be an opportunity to bounce back.

The world No. 11 pair have gone through a series of poor and inconsistent performances which saw them losing early in several tournaments after winning their first major title at the

Singapore Open in July.

They failed to go beyond the quarter-finals in their previous eight tournaments, only managing a last eight finish in the Japan Open in September and Denmark Open in October.

“It has been an uphill battle for us in the last few tournaments, we didn’t do too well, so we have to come back, try to make improvements and see where we can do better.”

“We’re not so consistent in our game. There is a struggle because we are trying to change some of our bad habits in the game.

“The focus now is to prevent our opponents from getting points easily out of us.”

Shevon believes that they have been the victims of their own success.

“After the Singapore Open win, our opponents have studied our game really well,” she said.

“They know our strategies, our weaknesses, so we struggled for the past few months. Now, we know the areas that we need to improve, change, work on, because everyone is improving quickly and we’ve to catch up now.”

She added the experience of competing against the other top pairs in the world in Guangzhou would be the benchmark of what to expect when a one-year Olympic qualifying period begins next year May.

“We’ve a chance to gauge where we stand against the other pairs in the Finals, we can see if there is anymore room to make changes and prepare for next year.”