THE dream start that newly formed men's doubles pair Goh V Shem-Low Juan Shen were hoping for, did not happen.
Not when they had to play Tokyo Olympic champions Lee Yang-Wang Chi Lin of Taiwan. The Malaysians lost 21-14, 21-18 in the first round of the Denmark Open, a Super 1000 event, in Odense.
Third seeds Lee Yang-Chi Lin advanced to meet Japan's Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi in the last 16.
But the one month-old independent pair of V Shem-Juan Shen were not too worried about their quiet beginning.
Juan Shen, 28, who only joined V Shem, 32, in training over a month ago, admitted that it may take some time before they hit the road running on the international stage.
"They (Lee Yang-Chi Lin) were by far the better pair. There is no shame in defeat for us.
"Although I must say we played much better in the second game.
"We are still fine tuning our partnership and it will take some time for us to find our rhythm, especially at this high level.
"I am confident things will only get better for us," said Juan Shen.
Prior to this partnership, V Shem was with Tan Wee Kiong, and they won the 2016 Olympic silver. Wee Kiong, who did not qualify for the Denmark Open, currently partners Tan Kiang Meng.
V Shem-Juan Shen still have two more tournaments to play in Europe: the French Open next week and the Hylo Open in Germany on Nov 2-7.
They will later head to Indonesia for the back-to-back Indonesia Masters on Nov 16-21 and the Indonesia Open (Nov 23-28).
"Our goals for the year are pretty straight forward, to build a strong partnership and to move up the world rankings.
"Once we get going, we can look forward to giving several major events a shot next year," added Juan Shen, who left BAM in 2018.