Shevon Jemie Lai conceded that the pair’s impatience in the deciding game of the Swiss Open final cost them dearly, after she and Goh Soon Huat lost for the second consecutive year in Basel.
The Malaysian mixed doubles pair managed to draw level in the second game after losing the opener against young Chinese pair Jiang Zhen Bang-Wei Ya Xin.
The deciding game was cat-and-mouse as expected, but the turning point came when both sides were locked at 16-16.
“The third game in any match is 50-50. At 16-all, one of Soon Huat’s smashes went wide. We lost a bit of patience after that point onwards, and we wanted to rush the game. That gave our opponents a lot of time and space to control us.
“They were more patient at the end. That was our mistake which cost us the third game,” Lai said.
As it ended, the Chinese triumphed 21-17, 19-21, 21-17 to collect their second title this year, leaving the Malaysians’ to rue another painful final in Basel.
It also left the world number 11 pairing without a title success since 2018, when they won the German and Singapore Open.
Since then, they finished second in all three finals beginning with the 2019 Korea Masters and the two in Basel.
Their defeat also meant no success yet for Malaysia on the BWF World Tour.
Other than them, only Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik made the final when they finished runners-up at the India Open in January.
Lai-Goh next play at the Madrid Spain Masters, which begins on Tuesday, taking on Chinese Taipei pair Chang Ko-chi-Lee Chih-chen in the first round.