Swiss Open always a sweet outing for Soon Huat-Shevon

PETALING JAYA: The Swiss Open continues to be a happy hunting ground for mixed doubles shuttlers Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie.

World No. 14 Soon Huat-Shevon reached their third consecutive final in the tournament after beating world No. 15 Dutch pair Robin Tabeling-Selena Piek 21-18, 21-16 in Basel on Saturday to set up an all-Malaysian title showdown with Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei.

The independent duo finished runners-up twice in the 2022 and 2023 editions after coming second best to Germany’s Mark Lamsfuss-Marvin Seidel and China’s Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin respectively.

The tournament continues to bring out the best from Soon Huat-Shevon as it it the first time the pair booked a final appearance this year.

Soon Huat was pleased with his fine run in Basel with Shevon once again.

“We are very, very happy that we managed to make it to the final in this competition again,” said Soon Huat.

“It’s three years in a row for us now and we will never ever give up and will alwaystry hard.”

It was a good win for Soon Huat-Shevon over the in form Tabeling-Piek, who also reached the semi-finals of the All-England in Birmingham last week.

Meanwhile, world No. 9 Tang Jie-Ee Wei were equally impressive when they swept aside Taiwan’s world No. 12 Ye Hong-wei-Lee Chia-hsin 21-16, 21-12 in the other semi-final match.

The win meant that Tang Jie-Ee Wei have yet to lose to the Taiwanese pair in five meetings in international tournaments.

It will be Tang Jie-Ee Wei’s second final of the year after they finished runners-up to 2021 world champions and home favourites Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai in the Thailand Masters in Bangkok in January.

This will be the first all-Malaysian title match in a World Tour competition since Lee Zii Jia came out on top over Ng Tze Yong in the Arctic Open men’s singles final in Vantaa, Finland, last October.

This is also the first time that two Malaysian mixed doubles pairs have reached a World Tour tournament final.

Another independent pair Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing did beat Soon Huat-Shevon in the 2017 Malaysian Masters final when the tournament was still a Grand Prix Gold event.

The tourney was upgraded to World Tour Super 500 level a year later.