Malaysia's top-ranked Men's doubles pair of Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong are focussed on making amends for their under-par showing at All England Championships earlier this year and getting back to the top of the badminton rankings.
The Men's doubles pair conceded their number one ranking to All England Champions Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya of Indonesia earlier this month. Having missed quite a few tournaments early in the season right after winning the season-ending Dubai Finals last year, Shem and Tan had to go the distance in Birmingham but a quarter-final defeat against their familiar foes Lo Junhui and Liu Yuchen dethroned them from the top spot, which they had achieved in November last year after silver medal-winning performances in Rio Olympics.
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Shem and Goh will be heading to New Delhi still as the top seeded pair for the Indian Open Superseries, starting 28 March. The Malaysian shuttlers, who exited the tournament last year in the semi-final after loss to Gideon/Sanjaya, will face Thailand's Kittinupong Kedren/Dechapol Pouvaranukoah in the opening round on Wednesday and are expected to face Junhui and Yuchen as early as in the third round.
Shem revealed there was immense pressure on Tan and himself when they were the numero uno but that the number two-ranked pair will now be able to express themselves more on the court. However, getting back to number one is their primary focus and the pair are targetting good showing at India, Malaysia and Singapore to achieve their target.
"It is not all bad after all [losing the number spot]. As we now enter the coming competitions not as the world No. 1, we will feel more relaxed and that could help us focus better. The pressure of being the world No. 1 is immense," V Shem said, as quoted by The Star.
"We want to bounce back from our All-England disappointment so badly, so it is important that we start producing some good results and regain our world number one spot.
"That is one of our goals in the next three tournaments. We will make our first attempt in India, if not we will continue to fight for it in our own backyard and Singapore."
