KUALA LUMPUR: Shevon Lai shed tears after realising a long-held dream of making it to a Super 1000 final in the BWF World Tour.
She and her mixed doubles partner, Goh Soon Huat achieved the feat today after defeating China's world No. 22 Cheng Xing-Zhang Chi in the China Open semi-final.
Despite trailing 2-1 on head-to-head record against the Chinese pair, the Malaysian world No. 12 rose to the occasion to prevail 21-18, 21-18 in 51 minutes at the Olympic Sports Centre Gymnasium in Changzhou.
Shevon and Soon Huat, who got married earlier this year, have been playing as a pair for about six to seven years, and this first Super 1000 final means a lot to them.
"I have tears in my eyes because one of my dreams is to be in a Super 1000 final, and I have told Soon Huat that many times before," Shevon said in a post-match interview.
She added that the pair are not ready to call it quits just yet, and fans will see them for quite some time.
"With every match we play, that's one less that we will participate in the future. So we just want to appreciate every match on the court so long as we come out of them without injury," added the 31-year-old Shevon.
Soon Huat said focusing on their mindset, going into the match, was key to their victory today.
"If we lose our mindset, we lose our focus, and our game becomes unstable, so we try to keep that in mind," he said.
Shevon added: "After the quarter-finals, we had a discussion where I said that the organisers would adjust the draught in the arena. It's not comfortable to play in such windy conditions.
"When we got on court today, you can feel instantly that the draught was less as from previously.
"We adjusted quickly to the new conditions, we would not let it affect our game.
"Entering three finals this year has been surreal, we have never experienced that before. It's unbelievable."
Soon Huat-Shevon will meet the winners of the semi-final clash between Indonesia's Dejan Ferdinansyah-Gloria Emmanuelle Widjaja and China's world No. 3 Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping in the final tomorrow.
Soon Huat-Shevon reached the finals of the Swiss Open and Malaysia Masters this year, winning both the tournaments. Can they make it three out of three tomorrow?