KUALA LUMPUR: As the one-year Olympic qualifying period begins in May, the pressure is on Olympic silver medallists Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying to get their act together.
Though the mixed doubles duo failed to impress in their last two tournaments, the All England and German Open, Peng Soon-Liu Ying will not dwell much on it.
“Yes, we are slightly worried about our recent performance but we cannot dwell on it for too long because it will affect our morale and confidence,” said Peng Soon.
On Thursday, Peng Soon-Liu Ying were knocked out in the second round of the All England by Indonesia's Tontowi Ahmad-Winny Oktavina Kandow.
Last week, they were sent packing in the opening round of the German Open by Russia's unheralded Evgenij Dremin-Evgenia Dimova.
“I don't think there is anything wrong with our partnership but perhaps we need to go back to the drawing board and work on some of our tactical play.
“The Olympic qualifying period starts in just over a month, so we want to head back to Kuala Lumpur, resume training and start preparing for that,” said Peng Soon.
The Malaysian World No 5 had got the year off to a flying start, clinching the Thailand Masters crown in January before going on to reach the semi-finals in both the Malaysia and Indonesia Masters.
Peng Soon-Liu Ying also cemented their status as Malaysia's best mixed doubles when they won the National Championships last month.
However, they have not been able to produce the same kind of form in Europe.
The independent duo, who recently announced former international, Chew Choon Eng as their coach, will compete next in the Malaysia Open on April 2-7.
Meanwhile, national pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai kept the Malaysian flag flying in the mixed doubles, when they reached their maiden All England semi-finals earlier today (Friday).
The duo, who recently dropped two rungs down to World No 14, upstaged China’s World No 2 Wang Yilyu-Huang Dongping 13-21, 22-20, 21-18 to set up a date with defending champions, Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino of Japan. The third seeded Japanese pair saw off Tontowi-Winny 24-22, 21-19 in the last eight.