BUKIT JALIL: Danish doubles specialist Kamilla Rytter Juhl believes that China’s women’s doubles players have an ace up their sleeves with the constant changing of partnerships.
At the Maybank Malaysian Open, the versatile Ma Jin has been paired up with youngster Tang Yuanting for the first time in an obvious bid to select the best combinations for the Uber Cup that will be held in New Delhi, India, in May – and also with an eye on the Asian Games.
But while Juhl admits that China are blessed to have an abundance of strong doubles players, she believes that they are not unbeatable.
“China are very lucky because they have at least 10 strong women’s doubles shuttlers who can play with anyone and still win,” said Juhl.
“That makes it very difficult for us and the rest because we have to try to keep up with their different combinations.
“In Denmark, we can’t do that because we do not have that kind of numbers.
“But Christinna (Pedersen) and I are fine with that because, at the end of the day, the Chinese do not use too many different tactics. It is usually one at the net and one at the back court.
“I think if we keep trying our best, there’s no reason why we can’t overcome them.”
Meanwhile, Juhl admitted that they found it hard to get going when playing without the strong backing from the Malaysian crowd.
On Wednesday, Juhl-Pedersen struggled to get their game going against South Korea’s world junior champions Kim Ji-won-Chae Yoo-jung before winning 16-21, 21-11, 21-17.
“We love the crowd here and we always look forward to competing in this stadium,” said Juhl.
“I guess I know why the fans here love us though … it’s because we keep throwing them racquets after every win!
“But it does help our game … we played an early match today and the stadium was empty and we started very slow. We just couldn’t find our rhythm at all.
“But we’re happy to beat the young Korean pair and, hopefully, if we face them again, we’ll be better prepared to teach them a lesson.”
