Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie were left to contemplate the fine line between pro-active and over-eager, as they missed an opportunity to notch a rare win over a top Chinese pair.

Playing their second group match against Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2025, the Malaysians did just about everything right except navigate that fine line at the end. At 20-17, three match points up, their instinct was to go for the kill, but their opponents are not world No.1 for nothing, and sprung the traps for the eager Malaysians. Five immaculate points later, it was the Chinese who walked away smiling, while Goh and Lai wondered what else they could have done.

“At the crucial point, we didn’t manage to control our mindset, because we were too eager to end the game,” Goh rued. “I don’t know why, but on those crucial points, their defence suddenly became so good. So I try to accept the result, and try to think about how to control our mindset and a new strategy to come back again.”

For Shevon, the result was a mixed bag – disappointing because of the loss; yet, having pushed the No.1 pair to a close result, a renewed belief in their abilities.

“Actually, it’s not the first time we’ve lost like this, 20-17, there’s some sort of, I don’t know, black magic (laughs) — but yeah, it’s disappointing losing at this position, and it’s been hard on us because we wanted to really overcome them once,” said Lai.

“We’ve never beaten this pair, and we were so close to taking the game today. But overall, I think, I’m quite happy that I’m back in a better shape, with a better performance, compared to the first match. My partner did really well. He managed a lot of crucial points as well.”

What made the result hard to swallow for the Malaysians was that, as an independent pair, staying at a high level has been a daunting challenge. They played 21 tournaments before Hangzhou, and success has been rare. The one opportunity that arose at the end of the year turned out to be ephemeral.

“After we came to this tournament with that preparation that the World Tour Finals, being a round robin setup, it’s always tough when you lose one match and then you still have to play the next day,” said Lai.
“So it’s how we get ourselves back into momentum again, which is tough to pass, but I think this time around, although we lost yesterday, we managed to overcome and then reset ourselves today. Today is a new day, and we managed to come back.

“It definitely means a lot to us because the past few tournaments, we have not been able to be on par with the top few pairs. Every match with them has been one-sided, we didn’t really manage to get even a three-game finish. So this result today actually means quite a lot to us to take back and to still believe in ourselves that we’re not really done yet.”

Having swallowed the bitter pill, Lai consoled herself with the silver lining from the cloud of defeat.

“We just want to keep motivating ourselves, because it’s really quite difficult for us being independent, and we don’t really have a group to support each other. Most of the time, it’s just the two of us and our coach and some of our teammates. So sometimes it’s quite difficult. When we are down, it’s just the two of us. So it means a lot in this match, even though losing is disappointing, but I think we are quite happy today.”

Other Highlights

» Jia Yi Fan/Zhang Shu Xian dug in deep to overcome Yuki Fukushima/Mayu Matsumoto in a 91-minute battle, 21-19 16-21 21-16.

» Kodai Naraoka’s sparkling form continued to hold as he beat second seed Li Shi Feng in relatively comfortable fashion, 21-16 21-15.

What Others Said

“Even though I lost, I’m pretty satisfied, because it’s not an easy feat, stretching Se Young and Akane to three games. I’ll just focus on giving my best tomorrow, regardless of the outcome, whether I go through to the knockout stages or not.” – Putri Kusuma Wardani

“I told her (Shevon) that it had been a long match and we both played well.” – Huang Dong Ping

“Our goal for the World Tour Finals is to get to the knockout stage and we have very strong desire to achieve that, and for that we tried everything we could.” – Jia Yi Fan

→Results (Day 2)