KUALA LUMPUR: The country today suffered its worst-ever showing in the mixed doubles event at the Malaysia Masters since the tournament's inception in 2009.
None of the four local pairs: world No. 7 Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie, Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing (17th), Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei (20th) and Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See (33th) — cleared the first round.
This was the first time Malaysia suffered a total wipeout in the event, including when the tournament was known as the Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold from 2009 to 2017.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei and Soon Huat-Shevon -- given their fine run recently, including at last week's Sudirman Cup -- were arguably the nation's best bets to spring a surprise this week in the absence of the world's top two pairs, Zheng Si Wei-Huang Ya Qiong of China and Japan's Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino.
However, Kian Meng-Pei Jing, the 2017 winners, were the first to be eliminated when they fell 22-20, 22-20 to Thailand's Supak Jomkoh-Supissara Paewsampran before Peng Soon-Yee See followed suit with a tame 21-8, 21-15 defeat against seventh seeds Kim Won Ho-Jeong Na Eun of South Korea.
The attention then turned to Soon Huat-Shevon, the Swiss Open finalists in March, but they went down fighting to former All England champions Praveen Jordan-Melati Daeva Oktavianti of Indonesia 21-19, 18-21, 21-12.
Any hopes of the host salvaging something from Orleans Masters champions Tang Jie-Ee Wei ended up in disappointment. They lost 22-20, 11-21, 21-15 to world No. 14 Rinov Rivaldy-Pitha Haningtyas Mentari of Indonesia.
Tang Jie said: "Our performance was not up to the mark. We weren't 100 per cent focused, and should be held accountable for this defeat," said a dejected Tang Jie.
"We fought well to come from behind to lead 15-14 in the rubber game. We paid a heavy price for failing to stay composed. Instead of focusing on the rallies, we were thinking too much of winning.
"It was just so frustrating and demoralising."