Confident Sabrina now dares to dream big
News 9:35 AM
THE last two months of training as a mixed doubles specialist under coach Jeremy Gan has made shuttler Sabrina Chong Sook Chin (pic) a more confident player.
And the 22-year-old now dares to dream of making it big. For a start, she will get the experience to play in the world championships in Hyderabad in August.
Thanks to several withdrawals, Sabrina has been lucky to get to feature in the women’s doubles as well.
She will team up with Woon Khe Wei for the women’s doubles and will partner Ong Jien Guo for the mixed doubles.
Sabrina’s priority is the mixed doubles with her 20-year-old parner, Jien Guo.
At the Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold, Sabrina-Jien Guo showed great promise in the first game before going down 19-21, 7-21 to eventual champions Zheng Bo-Ma Jin of China in the quarter-finals.
They were the only Malaysian mixed doubles pair to make the top eight in the tournament.
In the women’s doubles, Sabrina-Khe Wei went down 21-19, 20-22, 17-21 to Indonesians Vita Marissa-Nadya Melati.
Sabrina is looking forward to making her debut in the world championships.
“Since April, I have been playing as a full-time mixed doubles player under Jeremy. Three times a week, I get to play in the women’s doubles,” she said.
“Jeremy has changed my approach to the game. Thanks to his guidance, I have even changed the way I play. In the last two months, I am able to complement well with Ong.
“Hopefully, the experience in the world championships will make us a better pair. We hope to become a strong mixed doubles pair for the country.”
Jeremy said that he was happy with the commitment shown by Jien Guo-Sabrina in training.
“They take whatever that is thrown at them. Their level of commitment is very high and if they continue with this attitude, they have a bright future,” he said.
Malaysia have three other mixed doubles pairs in the world championships — Koo Kien Keat-Ng Hui Lin, Mohd Razif Abdul Latif-Khe Wei and Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying.
Posted by Lucas Liau
on 9:35 AM.
Filed under
