‘They Make Good Choices at the Right Moments’
How difficult is it to beat Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong?
· DEV SUKUMAR
Ask Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue.
The French pair, now at their career-best No.5 ranking, have faced the world’s best pair six times and lost all six.
Their second encounter, at the Malaysia Open last July, was a cracker of a match, going the Chinese’s way at 25-23 22-20. The French might have assumed the gap was getting closer, and yet, over the next few months, it actually widened. At the PETRONAS Malaysia Open 2023, Zheng and Huang slammed the door shut at 21-15 21-6. In five matches, the French hadn’t taken a game off the Chinese.