BIRMINGHAM: Hoon Thien How-Tan Wee Kiong are officially the highest ranked Malaysian pair now after moving ahead to No. 7 in the latest world rankings released on Thursday.
They have overtaken the now-defunct Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong partnership, which slipped to No. 8.
But Wee Kiong believes that it is court performances, rather than rankings which is their main focus right now.
The pair certainly need to work on their consistency after struggling to finish off Japan’s Hirokatsu Hashimoto-Noriyasu Hirata in the second round of the All-England.
Although they eventually lived up to their fifth seed billing with a 25-23, 20-22, 21-14 win, they could have won earlier had they not wasted four match points whilst leading 20-16 in the second game.
The 24-year-old Wee Kiong in particular admitted that he needs to work on reducing the mistakes he makes at the net.
“It’s nice to know our new rankings, but that’s the least of our worries right now,” said Wee Kiong.
“Currently, we’re more focused on trying to go one step further in this tournament … and I know I need to cut down on the errors that I make.”
The pair, who equalled last year’s performance of making the quarter-finals at the All-England, will go on to meet Indonesia’s Gideon Markus Fernaldi-Markis Kido for a place in the semi-finals.
The French Open champions were in good shape as they sent 2011 champions Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen of Denmark packing with a 21-18, 21-12 win.
“To be honest, it doesn’t really matter who we face next. It’s the quarter-finals already and whoever we face definitely deserves to be there as one of the top pairs,” said Wee Kiong.
“But we are confident of pulling the shots this time and making the semi-finals for a change.”
Meanwhile, Denmark’s doubles hopes were vanquished with Mads Conrad Petersen-Mads Pieler Kolding and Kim Astrup Sorensen-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen all crashing out in the second round.
Fu Haifeng-Zhang Nan who came through the qualifiers became the last Chinese pair standing after crushing the challenge of Chris Adcock-Andrew Ellis of England 21-12, 21-10.
They will go on to meet reigning world champions Mohd Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia, who struggled to contain a spirited display by another English pair Chris Langridge-Peter Mills 8-21, 21-17, 21-14, for a place in the last four.
