Liu Ying overcomes jitters to enter first round

GOH Liu Ying overcame a nervy start to combine superbly with Koo Kien Keat to beat the more fancied South Korean pair of Jung Jae-sung-Lee Kyung-won in the mixed doubles qualifying tournament yesterday.

The 19-year-old lass, combining for the first time with Kien Keat, said her partner was the steadying factor in their 21-18, 21-14 win.

Today, they will take on third seeds He Hanbin-Yu Yang of China in the first round.

“Our Korean opponents were a strong pair although they are also trying out their combination,” said Liu Ying.

“I was scared at first and made a lot of mistakes. But Koo kept on encouraging me and that really helped. Finally, I got my game going. This is one of my sweetest win,” she said.

National doubles chief coach Rexy Mainaky said that he decided to field Kien Keat in the mixed doubles again after a long break for two main reasons.

“It is one way to help Kien Keat to relax. He has been too pre-occupied with the men’s doubles and I want him to have some extra matches to ease into a tournament. Playing in the mixed doubles helps,” said Rexy.

“In fact, we will be fielding our youngsters in both the doubles events in future. They can handle the intensity of playing in more matches.

“Our long term plan is to prepare solid mixed doubles pairs for the 2012 Olympic Games in London and Kien Keat is part of our plan.

“For now, there is no guarantee that Kien Keat will be fielded with Liu Ying again but we will look into featuring regular mixed doubles partnerships after the Olympics.

“I would rather focus on the mixed doubles than women doubles for our London Olympics preparation,” he added.

Yesterday, Kien Keat-Liu Ying were the only Malaysians who came through the qualifying tournament.

(Malaysians only)

Women’s singles First round: Vivian Hoo Kah Mun bt Razan Khaled Alkhalife (Jor) 21-11, 21-3 Second round: Vivian bt Le Thi Thanh Thuy (Vie) 10-21, 21-12, 21-19 Third round: Chiang Pei-hsing (Tpe) bt Vivian 21-16, 21-15

Mixed doubles First round: Duong Bao Duc-Thai Thi Hong Gam (Vie) bt Kuan Kam Chung-Vivian Hoo 21-18, 23-21. Second round: Koo Kien Keat-Goh Liu Ying bt Chen Chung-sheng-Yang Chia-tseng (Tpe) 21-11,21-9 Third round: Kien Keat-Liu Ying bt Jung Jae-sung-Lee Kyung-won (Kor) 21-18, 21-14.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 7:09 PM. Filed under News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0