Wuhan: While Malaysia’s World No. 5 mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying were motivated to qualify for the 2020 Olympics, they certainly needed to do well in upcoming tournaments to increase their chances of making the Tokyo Games.
Chan/Goh who got off the season brilliantly by winning the Thailand Masters, followed with semi-final appearances at both the Malaysia Masters and the Indonesia Masters. The pair started to suffer a dip in form at the German Open and All England, crashed out in the first and second round respectively. The pair then were sent packing in the quarter-finals of both Malaysia and Singapore Open that concluded two weeks ago.
“Actually, we would need to maintain the world’s top eight ranking until May next year,” explained Chan who also admitted that their performance was not up to par as of late.
“The draw in Wuhan looks easy on paper, but we cannot underestimate the challenges from our opponents,” added Chan.
The fifth seeded Malaysian pair will open their 2019 Badminton Asia Championships (BAC) against Singapore’s Danny Bawa Chrisnanta/Tan Wei Han on Tuesday.
“If we get past the first round, we will face the Chinese pair, World No. 12 He Jiting/Du Yue, which could be a somewhat difficult match,” added Chan.
