World number four Men's doubles badminton pair of Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong are confident that the Malaysian team can count on them to deliver positive results at Sudirman Cup, starting 21 May in Gold Coast, Australia.
The former world number doubles shuttlers have suffered a title drought ever since they went on to win the BWF World Superseries Final in Dubai last year. The Rio Olympic silver medallists faced a quarter-final exit at All England Championships and India Open, after which they were stunned in the opening round of Malaysia Super Series Premier.
Another quarter-final exit followed the duo in Singapore and they were ousted in the second round of Badminton Asia Championships. The poor run saw them slip from the top spot to number four in badminton rankings and Wee Kiong believes that have become too predictable, which their opposition teams were able to exploit in the new season.
However, the 27-year-old says that they can come up with another strong Sudirman Cup performance in Gold Coast this year. Notably, V Shem and Wee Kiong played a crucial role in leading the Malaysian team to the quarter-final in 2015, in which they went down to South Korea.
"V Shem and I did well in our first Sudirman Cup two years ago. We are all fired up. The team can count on us to put up another strong showing. We hope to go beyond the quarter-final this time," Wee Kiong said, as quoted by The Star.
Also read: Lee Chong Wei fired up to lead Malaysia to Sudirman Cup glory
"We have not performed well but our conditions are much better now. There were minor injury issues but it's all settled now. We have added more variety and tried out different strokes. It's not easy to change immediately but we are working on it."
Malaysia's campaign at the Mixed Team tournament will be led by world number one Men's singles shuttler Lee Chong Wei. The fifth-seeded team is drawn alongside Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships title winners Japan and Germany in the group stages.
Apart from Chong Wei and Wee Kiong/V Shem pairing, Malaysia will have Iskandar Zulkarnain in the Men's singles category, Goh Jin Wei and Soniia Cheah in the Women's singles team and Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi in the Men's doubles category. Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei and Chow Mei Kuan/Lee Mene Yean will be part of Women's doubles unit while Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing and Chan Peng Soon/Cheah Yee See are part of their Mixed doubles unit.
