KUALA LUMPUR: Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky has admitted that the country’s top mixed doubles pair, Cheng Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei, are still struggling to find common ground, especially when playing under pressure.
According to him, the world number three pair find it difficult to accept each other’s mistakes, which in turn affects their rhythm on court.
“It’s not that they are not good; they just panic when one of them makes a mistake.
“Once they start making mistakes, their game will go awry,” he told reporters after the national team’s training session here today.
Rexy was asked to comment on the pair’s inconsistent performance at the Macau Open last week.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei, the top seeds in Macau, missed the chance to claim their first Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour title of the season after falling in the semi-finals to Denmark’s Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Boje.
Rexy said this issue of poor communication wasn’t something new, as national women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah had previously gone through a similar situation.
As such, he hopes Tang Jie and Ee Wei will learn to accept each other’s mistakes and weaknesses to help improve their overall performance.
“It’s the same situation Pearly and Thinaah were in before, but now both of them have begun to accept it, and we’re seeing more consistent performances from them.
“Because on court, there’s no one else to help them but their own partner,” he said. – BERNAMA
