Written By : Imran Razib
Goh V Shem is facing a giant task of rebuilding his career with a new partner and having to start from scratch, but he’s determined to overcome the challenges ahead.
Former partner Tan Wee Kiong announced the pair would be going their separate ways after seven year together last week.
Goh quickly moved to secure a partnership with fellow independent shuttler Low Juan Shen.
“At this point all the independent shuttlers who are front court players already have partners.
“Low is the only front court player who is unattached, so I have decided to partner with him for the upcoming tournaments,” Goh told the reporters.
The new pair will make their debut at the upcoming Taipei Open (Sept 7-12), and plan to compete at the Denmark Open (Oct 19-24) and French Open (Oct 26-31) after that.
While the duo do not have an official ranking as of yet, they will be allowed to combine both their rankings from previous partnerships for the three events.
Goh was ranked 13th with Tan, while Low was ranked 65th with Nur Azriyn Ayub.
Before they even make their debut, there’s also the small matter of securing a main sponsor and an equipment sponsor.
“Our main sponsors have not been confirmed yet, we are still looking for one. As for the equipment sponsor, it is still under process. We hope to confirm it before the Taipei Open.
“I want to prove myself more than anything else. I still want to play badminton at the highest level, so it will mean working hard even if we have to start from zero.
We have to start collecting points from the first tournament itself.
“I hope me and Low can develop a good understanding together,” he added.
With Tan, Goh scaled the top of the world rankings and won several major titles on the badminton circuit, most notably the Denmark Open and World Super Series Finals in 2016.
They also clinched silver at the Rio Olympics, and gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Meanwhile, the Badminton World Federation announced the cancellation of the Korea Open and Macau Open due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions that left the local organisers with no other option.
