Tang Jie-Ee Wei in race against time to overcome weaknesses ahead of world meet
PETALING JAYA: Mixed doubles shuttlers Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei have to raise their game if they hope to win a medal in the World Championships from Aug 25-31 in Paris.
With the world meet just a month away, the world No. 4 pair are in a race against time to overcome their shortcomings.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei's preparations for the Paris showpiece took a hit after they went down to world No. 9 home pair Guo Xinwa-Chen Fanghui 19-21, 15-21 in the China Open quarter-finals at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in Changzhou yesterday.
The Malaysians had never lost to the reigning All-England champions before this, coming out on top in both their previous meetings in the China Masters and Hong Kong Open last year, but could not replicate their past performances and ended up losing in 43 minutes.
Tang Jie admitted after the disappointing defeat that he and Ee Wei had work to do ahead of the world meet.
'Today (yesterday), our quality when returning our opponent's serve was not good enough. They got many points due to this. Other than that, we did quite well,' said Tang Jie in a post-match interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
'We also need to learn how to maintain our focus during long rallies. This is very important for us.'
Ee Wei said: 'We made a lot of mistakes when we received the shuttle.
'We need to train more and reduce our mistakes. We will go back and discuss with our coach (on what we need to work on).'
Overall, Tang Jie-Ee Wei have had a frustrating year after not reaching any finals so far.
The duo were stopped in the semi-finals four times in the Opens in Malaysia, India, Indonesia and last week in Japan.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei also split at the end of March due to a strained relationship before resolving their differences quickly and reuniting less than a month later.
The pair have an opportunity to do better when they compete next in the Macau Open which starts next Tuesday.
A good showing in the World Tour Super 300 tourney where Tang Jie-Ee Wei are the top seeds, will boost their confidence ahead of the world meet.
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