Badminton News: Mixed doubles duo Goh Soon Huat / Shevon Lai Jemie will travel to Tokyo later this month for the fourth consecutive Badminton World Championships chasing the podium.
The world number 14 pair came close to winning a medal in Huelva, Spain last year after losing to defending champions Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand.
Buoyed by their performance in the semi-finals at the Singapore Open last month, the independent duo believe they have a fighting chance and want to at least do better.
Their optimism was fueled by the draw, which saw them avoid world top 1 Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong, Olympic gold medalists Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping and Dechopol/Sapsiree in the same round.
Soon Huat-Shevon will be in the same pool as second seeds Dechopol/Sapsiree but will not meet them until the semi-finals.
To reach the medal round, Soon Huat/Shevon had to overcome tough opponents, namely Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue from France and Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino from Japan in the round of 16 and quarterfinals.
“Our draw is not bad even though we will face a strong young French pair in the third round, I think we have a good chance,” Shevon said.
“As for Yuta-Arisa, we lost to them in back-to-back matches at the Thailand Open recently, but it was a close match. We got some ideas from that fight, so hopefully we can beat them. if we meet again.”
“But having said that, the most important thing for me and Soon Huat was to focus from the first game. We learned from experience. Many times we really ruined our game because of our desire to win. .”
Shortly after, Huat-Shevon, seeded 11th, earned a first-round bye. They will only open their competition against England representatives Gregory Mairs/Jenny Moore or India’s Venkat Prasad/Juhi Dewangan.
Koo Kien Keat/Wong Pei Tty are the only Malaysian mixed doubles medalists at the World Championships (they won bronze in Madrid in 2006).
Tags: Goh Soon Huat, Shevon Jemie Lai, 2022 world championship
Published by Ligaolahraga.com at https://www.ligaolahraga.com/badminton/soon-huatshevon-incar-podium-di-kejuaraan-dunia-2022
