Kim Her happy he’s spoiling Malaysian doubles party
NEWLY appointed Japan’s men doubles coach Tan Kim Her wasted no time in spoiling Malaysia’s party when his boys snuffed out the challenge of the national top two pairs in the Celcom Axiata Malaysian Open.
Keigo Sonoda-Takeshi Kamura and Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi tore apart Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong and Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik to reach the quarter-finals at the Axiata Arena yesterday.
Sonoda-Kamura downed V ShemWee Kiong 10-21, 21-13, 21-9 to mark their fifth straight win over the Rio Olympic Games silver medallists.
Aaron-Wooi Yik, who entered the tournament on the back of their AllEngland runners-up finish, were brought back down to earth by HokiKobayashi. They lost tamely 9-21, 16-21.
Aaron bluntly admitted that he and Wooi Yik were simply not good enough.
“I could only sum up our performance today in one word - bad. It was really bad, we didn’t play well at all, everything just didn’t work out for us, our rotation and movements were awkward, there’s just no chemistry in our combination,” said Aaron.
“It pains us to lose in such fashion. We entered the court, lost the game, and are still clueless over the defeat.”
Aaron admitted that a lack of mental strength had cost them the match.
“We lost because we were not mentally strong enough. Our confidence went downhill when we struggled to play well and just could not turn the game around,” said Aaron.
“But it’s over now. We must move on and rise from this disappointment.
Malaysia’s challenge in the men’s doubles is over with the elimination of national champions Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi and independent pair Chooi Kah Ming-Low Juan Shen yesterday.
Yew Sin-Ee Yi went down 17-21, 19-21 to China’s Han Chengkai-Zhou Haodong while Kah Ming-Juan Shen were sent packing by All-England champions Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia in a 18-21, 12-21 defeat.
The early exits of all Malaysian pairs in the men’s doubles were stark contrast to the sensational outing at the Malaysian Masters three months ago.
Then, Yew Sin-Ee Yi, Aaron-Wooi Yik and V Shem-Wee Kiong made it to the semis and Yew Sin-Ee Yi eventually finished as the runners-up.
It was also the end of the road for Malaysia in the women’s singles following Goh Jin Wei’s 16-21, 21-12, 10-21 defeat to Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong in the second round.