KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — The postponement of the 2021 India Open, scheduled for May 11-16, has been a blessing of disguise for independent mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying.
Liu Ying feels that although the tournament offered valuable qualifying points for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, the postponement was timely as what’s important was giving priority to the health and safety of all the shuttlers following a spike in COVID-19 cases in New Delhi, the tournament’s venue.
The 31-year-old said that she and her partner, Peng Soon, would use the ‘free time’ available now to get back into the groove following a series of underwhelming performances since the beginning of the year, with the latest setback being their semi-final exit at last month’s All England Badminton Championships.
The third-seeded Peng Soon-Liu Ying’s hopes of reaching the final in Birmingham were dashed by unseeded the Japanese pair of Yuki Kaneko-Misaki Matsutomo, who won 21-14, 22-20.
“I personally think that the postponement is good for us as we’ll get more chance to train and regain our rhythm before we gear up for the upcoming Malaysia Open next month and Singapore Open in June.
“We are eager to take part in the Malaysia Open as we heard that the top players from around the world will be competing. So, that will be a good avenue to gain qualification points for the Tokyo Olympics,” she told Bernama in an exclusive interview today.
The Malaysia Open is set to be held from May 25-30 and Singapore Open 2021 from June 1-6.
Meanwhile, Peng Soon said they plan to focus on improving their fitness level as it was fatigue that caused them to perform quite badly in the previous outings.
The 32-year-old Penangite also believes that being fitter would stop them from giving away cheap points to their opponents.
On another matter, Liu Ying admitted to feeling uneasy and dizzy the first three days after receiving her first vaccine jab under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme last week, although Peng Soon said he did not experience any side effects at all.
The Rio 2016 Olympics silver medallists hope to tough it out for the second dose, which they will be given within the next three weeks, as “we heard that the effects can be much stronger than the first jab”.
