Can they make Malaysians any more prouder?
After winning a silver medal in 2016’s Rio Olympics, the badminton men’s doubles pair of Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong has reached another milestone in their career – obtaining the number 1 spot in the Superseries standings list.
The ranking was officially announced last Friday (14th October), and the top Malaysian pair was elevated to number 1 status by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) following the removal of the names of Korean pair Lee Yong Dae and Yoo Yeon Seong. This is due to Lee’s retirement from the sport.
When contacted by Star Sports, V Shem expressed his surprise and delight.
He said:
“This is the 1st time that Wee Kiong and I have been ranked 1st. It has been a mixed season for us this year. We will go all out to maintain the number 1 position by staying consistent in Europe. We want to go to Dubai as the top-ranked pair.”
While the pair hopes to do well in the upcoming Superseries tournaments (Denmark Open and French Open), they admitted that they haven’t been performing up to par recently. The world No. 7 pair’s best performance was reaching the semi-finals in 3 of the tournaments – the All-England, Indian Open, and Korean Open.
They managed to reach the quarter-finals of Indonesian Open but could only scratch early round appearances at the Malaysian Open, Singapore Open, Australian Open, and Japan Open.
The Goh – Tan pair is slated to make an appearance in the Denmark Open, which starts from 18th October, and French Open, which starts on 25th October. They are expected to join the China Open (15th November – 20th November) and Hong Kong Super Series (22nd November – 27th November), and will hopefully compete in the BWF World Superseries Finals as the number 1 seed in Dubai from 14th to 18th December.
Source: Star Sports.
