KUALA LUMPUR: Mixed doubles Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai and Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei face an early showdown at the World Tour Finals (WTF) after being drawn in the same group in Hangzhou today.
Second seeds Soon Huat-Shevon Lai and third seeds Tang Jie-Ee Wei are in Group B with Dejan Ferdinansyah-Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja of Indonesia and Hiroki Midorikawa-Natsu Saito of Japan.
The top two pairs from the group will qualify for the semi-finals in the tournament on Dec 11-15.
However, the Malaysian pairs can take some comfort in avoiding the formidable Chinese combinations in the group stage.
Top seeds Jiang Zhen Bang-Wei Ya Xin, as well as Olympic champions Zheng Si Wei-Huang Ya Qiong, are in Group A, also featuring Hong Kong's fourth seeds Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet and Taiwan's Yang Poh Hsuan-Hu Ling Fang.