Ousted Hee, Jin To 'Work Harder'

Singapore mixed doubles duo eliminated in first round for seventh competition in a row

- Kimberly Kwek

It is back to the drawing board for national mixed doubles badminton pair Terry Hee and Jin Yujia, as they suffered a first-round exit at the KFF Singapore Open following a 21-14, 21-9 loss to Indonesians Rehan Kusharjanto and Gloria Widjaja on May 28.

This is the seventh consecutive tournament in which the world No. 27 duo, who started playing together only in November 2024, have been knocked out in the opening round of 32.

Despite the support of the home crowd at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, Hee and Jin were unable to end the streak against their 26th-ranked Indonesian opponents, also a newly formed pair who made their competition debut at the Jan 28-Feb 2 Super 300 Thailand Masters.

Jin, 28, said: "This was definitely not our best performance. We were hoping to put up a better performance for all the Singaporeans. Unfortunately today, the win was not on our side and we have to reflect on what went wrong."

The match started on an even footing, but with the scores level at 4-4, the Indonesians began to pull ahead, going up 11-5 at the interval.

Returning to the court, Hee and Jin narrowed the deficit briefly to 12-8, but the Indonesians regained the momentum to close out the first game 21-14.