Malaysia’s top women’s doubles pair Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei checked their emotions to carve out a come-from-behind 17-21, 21-17, 21-16 win over Thailand’s Puttita Supajirakul-Sapsiree Taerattanachai in the first round in the USD Maybank Malaysia Open Super Series Premier at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Monday.
The Malaysians were driven by thoughts of their former women’s doubles coach Rosman Razak who has left the national team when he decided not to renew his contract with the Badminton Association of Malaysia.
“This is our first match in the tournament and this is also our first match without Rosman as our coach. It is a good start to our campaign…we want to win for the country, for ourselves and for the coach,” said Vivian, who had fought back emotions as she recalled the sudden turn of events.
The Malaysian pair lost the first set 17-21 but regained their composure in the second with a 21-17 and won the rubber 21-16 after a 67-minute battle on the court to advance to the second round where their likely opponents are second seeds Christinna Pedersen-Kamilla Rytter Juhl of Denmark. The Danes play qualifiers Anggia Shitta Awanda-Mahadewi Istirani of Indonesia.
“We took time to settle down as this is our first match without our previous coach. But once we got the feel of the atmosphere and the tournament we managed to get the better of our opponents.
“Since this is our tournament we hope to go all the way to win the title although we have a very tough second round match where we are likely to play the Danes. We met them once in the Uber Cup and lost. But we will go in fighting and give our best to go all the way,” said Vivian.
Vivian Hoo-Khe Wei failed to make the quarter-finals in last week’s Indian Open in New Delhi losing 21-13, 23-21 to Hong Kong’s Chan Tsz Ku-Tse Ying Suet in the second round.
.
Meanwhile in the mixed doubles Wong Fai Yin-Chow Mei Kuan were first round casualties when they lost 13-21, 8-21 to third seeds Xu Chen-Ma Jin of China.
