KUALA LUMPUR – National mixed doubles player Chen Tang Jie wants to go all out and give the best in the upcoming Badminton Asian Championships (BAC) in Ningbo, China.
The BAC is scheduled to take place from April 9 to April 14.
However, Tang Jie, who partners with Toh Ee Wei, has been dealt a cruel blow in the first round after being drawn against world number one pair Zheng Siwei-Huang Yaqiong of China.
The world number nine Malaysians have lost all three previous meetings against Siwei-Yaqiong.
“We just came back from the Swiss Open so I don’t think in this one week we can do anything that can make a big difference for the BAC. We will just work on small tweaks.
“Even though our priority is the Olympics…no one wants to lose when they enter a tournament, we will always prepare to give our best.
“We will not treat the BAC as a warm-up tournament. If there is an opportunity to win we will take it.
“Against Siwei-Yaqiong, we can only try our best on the day.
“I don’t think there is a lot of difference between my mindset when I play a tournament,” said Tang Jie when met at Akademi Badminton Malaysia recently.
Meanwhile, to strengthen the mental fortitude of national players, the Badminton Association of Malaysia has enlisted the services of psychologist Frederick Tan and Tang Jie is looking forward to working with him.
“Ee Wei and I have not had a proper session with Frederick yet as he came in just as we were leaving for Europe. But we did get a short motivational session with him.
“The first tournament we will work with him is the BAC so I’m excited at the prospect of working with him,” he said.
Tang Jie and Ee Wei have had a rough start to the year after three consecutive second-round exits at Malaysia Open, India Open and the Indonesia Masters.
The pair showed great improvement at the Thailand Masters when they qualified for the final. However, they lost to home pair Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai.
At the French and All England Open, they continued their second-round exit streak before making their second final appearance this season at the Swiss Open two weeks ago.
Unfortunately, they lost to compatriots Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai.
They are poised to make their Olympic debut in Paris as currently they are ranked eighth on the BWF’s Race to Paris rankings.
The BAC is the last tournament to offer Olympic ranking points and the qualification period will end on April 28. – April 3, 2024