A HIGH flick serve that went wrong shattered Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying’s hopes of winning their first home mixed doubles title but the duo can still walk tall.
Yesterday, the world No. 18 ranked Malaysians went down fighting 21-18, 15-21, 19-21 to Indonesians Tantowi Ahmad-Lilyana Natsir in a 57-minute final.
The duo had looked good to smash their way to a second career title when they took a 13-9 lead in the second game. Liu Ying, who played excellently at the front, lost her touches while Peng Soon was jittery too.
The Malaysians did well to come out of the bad patch with a stronger showing towards the end of the rubber game and had a chance to force a deuce after catching up to 19-20. But it all ended when Peng Soon muffed up the serve to the delight of Lilyana-Tantowi.
It was the third career title for the world No. 10 ranked Indonesians after forging a partnership less than a year ago. They were also the champions at the Macau Open and last week’s India Open.
Said the experienced Lilyana: “We saw our opponents slowing down in the second and they looked tense.
“We took advantage and turned our game around. This will give us more confidence as we look forward to the world championships (in August).” Peng Soon was dejected that they let slip a good chance to win another Open title after their success in the Asian championships (ABC) in India last year.
“We did well to keep them at arm’s length at the start but we could not sustain it.
“We slowed down and that gave our opponents a lot of confidence to break away,” he said.
“It is really frustrating. We could have won it if we had not slacked in the second game. We need to be more steady.”
Liu Ying said that she lost her balance after making some costly mistakes.
“I did not fear them but I allowed them to take advantage of my weak defence today. I became quite edgy when I started to make all the mistakes,” she said.
“But overall, it has been a good outing for us. We were able to show to Malaysia that we can be counted on in mixed doubles too. We will continue to improve on our game.”
En route to the final, Peng Soon-Liu Ying beat world No. 2 Sudket Prapakamol-T. Saralee of Thailand and Indonesia’s Fran Kurniawan-Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth for the first time in five meetings.
The duo will get ready for the Sudirman Cup at Qingdao from May 22-29 and the world championships in London from Aug 8-14.
Said national coach Jeremy Gan: “Overall, they did okay. But there are some areas that they need to polish up. China’s top mixed doubles pairs were not here. We will see how Peng Soon-Liu Ying fare in the Sudirman Cup.”
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