KUALA LUMPUR: Mixed doubles shuttler Chan Peng Soon believes his partnership with Cheah Yee See will only get better after the duo's impressive run came to an end in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
Peng Soon who bagged the 2016 Rio Olympic Games silver medal with Goh Liu Ying - currently recovering after undergoing surgery - encouraged his younger teammate to learn from experience and come back stronger.
On Friday, the Malaysian scratch pair lost 21-8, 21-17 to seventh seeds Praveen Jordan-Debby Susanto of Indonesia at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre.
"I am not disappointed at all. Yee See is still young and she is slowly finding her rhythm.
"She will need some time to improve her game surely. All of us had to go through the same process.
"There is no shame in this defeat. We still have a couple more tournaments and we expect to come out stronger, especially at the upcoming Kuala Lumpur Sea Games," said Peng Soon, who together with Yee See will next compete at the Taiwan Open next week.
Meanwhile, in the men's doubles, Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi's also ran out of steam, losing 14-21, 21-12, 21-15 to world No 10 Liu Cheng-Zhang Nan of China.
Independent shuttler Tan Boon Heong is the only Malaysian left in the competition, after he and his Indonesian partner Hendra Setiawan beat Japan's Takuto Inoue-Yuki Kaneko 21-14, 21-12..
Boon Heong-Hendra play Liu Cheng-Zhang Nan next for a place in the final.