COPENHAGEN, Aug 27 — Lack of experience at the international level other than failing to check their opponents caused national mixed doubles Tan Aik Quan and Lai Pei Jing to exit early at the 2014 World Badminton Championship.
The country’s sole representatives in the mixed doubles lost 16-21 and 9-21 to fourth seeded husband-and-wife pair Chris and Gabrielle Adcock of England in the second round at the Ballerup Super Arena yesterday.
“The couple wised up to our pattern of play causing us to lose points to them,” Lai told reporters after the match.
The Pahang-born player admitted that there were several weaknesses that must be remedied, especially the mistake of giving away easy points that allowed the opposition to win the match.
“We were raring to take revenge against them on our defeat at the 2014 Commonwealth Games but they saw through all our plannings. A glaring mistake that I can see is that we failed to neutralise them,” said the 22-year-old player.
Lai said they would next take part in the 2014 Yonex-Sunrise Indonesian Masters Grand Prix Gold from Sept 9-14 in Palembang, Indonesia but did not fix any specific target.
At the first round action on Monday, Tan and Lai had beaten Hong Kong pair, Chan Yun Lung and Ying Suet Tse in 21-14 and 21-17. — Bernama
