Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s mixed doubles pair of Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying insisted they’ll need to find a new winning formula to keep their World Championships and Asian Games hopes alive, especially when facing Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir of Indonesia.
After losing to Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir in the Rio 2016 Olympic final, Chan/Goh failed to get their revenge on Sunday, falling to the Indonesian pair for the 10th time in their 11th career meetings in the Indonesia Open final.
“None of our game plans were working when we played against them. As if they could read our movements and anticipate our tactics every time we meet them,” said Chan.
“So, there are still about three more weeks before the World Championship starts, we’ll need to quickly find new ways to counter them. We will try to halt our losing streak against them the next time we meet,” added Chan.
The 2018 Badminton World Championships is set to kick off in Nanjing, China from July 30 to August 5 while the Asian Games is scheduled to be held from August 18 to September 2, 2018 in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang.
Despite their loss in the Indonesia Open final, Chan was satisfied with their performance.
“We were happy to be able to make several upsets throughout the tournament, such as beating World No. 1 Wang Yilyu/Huang Dongping in the quarter-finals and World No. 2 Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong in the semi-finals.”
“That really boosted our confidence ahead of the World Championships that will start end of this month,” said Chan.
Even though they couldn’t bring home the Indonesia Open crown, Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying have created history to become Malaysia’s first mixed doubles pair that managed to enter the Indonesia Open final.
