Veteran Malaysian men’s doubles pair Tan Wee Kiong and Nur Azriyn Ayub have revised their year-end target to breaking into the world’s top 16 after missing out on qualification for the World Tour Finals, The Star reported.
The duo dropped to 16th in the World Tour standings following a string of early exits during the European leg last month. Their position is expected to slide further before the season-ending tournament in Hangzhou next month, according to The Star.
Tan and Azriyn started the European swing ranked 11th in the standings with realistic ambitions of qualifying for the season finale. However, first-round defeats at the Arctic Open, Denmark Open, and French Open derailed their momentum.
Their struggles continued at the Korea Open, where they suffered an 11-21, 17-21 defeat against home pair Jin Yong and Jo Song-hyun in the opening round, The Star reported. We have not achieved our target yet, and for now, we want to break into the world’s top 16,
Azriyn told The Star.
Before heading to Europe last month, we were actually aiming to qualify for the World Tour Finals as we were ranked 11th in the standings at the time. But we did not play well in Europe, and now our chances of qualifying are very slim,
Azriyn added.
The world No. 28 pair will attempt to halt their slide this week at the Kumamoto Masters Japan. They face a difficult opening match against Denmark’s world No. 13 pair, Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard, according to The Star.
Azriyn acknowledged that communication breakdowns during matches have contributed to their recent slump. I think we have been a bit slow to figure out how to play during matches, and sometimes we lose our way. I feel that I need to communicate better with Wee Kiong from now on,
he told The Star.
Of course, we still want to win our first title together, but before thinking about that, our priority is to stay injury-free and play to our true potential,
Azriyn said.
Malaysia will feature four other pairs in the main draw alongside Azriyn and Tan, The Star reported. Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik will open against India’s Hariharan Amsakarunan and M. R. Arjun.
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