KUALA LUMPUR: Consistency has been the sole mantra for mixed doubles Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai on the World Tour and it has yielded huge dividends for the veteran pair.
World No. 4 Soon Huat-Shevon made their sixth semi-final appearance in their last seven tour events by confidently getting past the last eight stage at the India Open in New Delhi today.
The independent pair overcame world No. 9 Yang Po Hsuan-Hu Ling Fang of Taiwan 21-11, 21-15 in just 29 minutes at the Indira Ghandi Sports Complex.
The husband-and-wife team began their power surge at the China Open in September last year where they finished runners-up at a Super 1000 event for the first time.
They had earlier secured the last four spot at the Arctic Open and Kumamoto Masters, both Super 500 events, as well as the World Tour Finals (WTF) and the Malaysia Open Super 1000 last week.
Shevon declared that it was their intention to overcome their roller coaster performances and establish consistency, a goal they set for themselves about three years ago.
"Consistency has been our biggest challenge which has cost us a lot of failures in the last three years. Maintaining consistency has been our main focus and this improvement is obvious now," said Shevon.
"Consistency here is more on our ability to hang on without making mistakes in rallies and also playing the crucial points well."
Soon Huat said that their stable performance now helps them recover from difficult situations. They did that with telling effect against Poh Hsuan-Hu Ling Fang who led 14-11 in the second game only to see the Malaysian pair earn eight points on the trot to lead 19-14 and eventually close the match at 21-15.
"We have learnt a lot on how to play consistently, bouncing back when the opponents are leading and also remaining calm in those situations. We have done a good job here," said Soon Huat.
Soon Huat-Shevon will take on world No. 2 Jiang Zhen Bang-Wei Ya Xin of China, who defeated 11th-ranked compatriots Guo Xin Wa-Chen Fang Hui 21-14, 18-21, 21-11, in the last four.
The Malaysians will be banking on their new-found confidence to upstage Zhen Bang-Ya Xi who have a runaway 6-1 head-to-head record.