Sydney: Rio Olympic men’s doubles silver medalists Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong were struggling to pull out of their form slump after they crashed out of the Australian Open first round on Wednesday.
The former World No. 1 pair reacted badly and completely lost their concentration in the second and third set, bowing out to unseeded Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko of Japan 21-16, 13-21, 13-21 in 49 minutes.
Goh/Tan’s Australian Open first round exit was the first since they were defeated by Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan of China at the China Open last November. However, the Malaysian pair was able to bounce back to win the 2016 Dubai World Superseries Finals at the end of 2016.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s another men’s doubles pair – Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi had better luck than Goh/Tan as they saw off Simon Leung and Mitchell Wheller of Australia 21-6 and 21-11.
Ong/Teo will take on Indonesia’s Saputra Alvindo/Ferdinand Sinarta Surabkti in the second round.
