National shuttlers Jaspar Yu Woon Chai and Jasmain Tay started off their Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold Badminton World Federation (BWF) Yonex campaign with a defeat yesterday.

The national duo fell 2-0 (21-8, 21-12) to the Chinese Taipei duo of Yu-Wei Chiang and Yang Lee in the qualifying round at the Hsing Chuang Gymnasium at the New Taipei City in Chinese Taipei yesterday.

"It's the same all over again," said Yu in a phone interview with The Brunei Times after their defeat.

"We still lack quality sparring back home during training, so when we come out to this level, we are way behind these players.

"Their shots are faster than us but our skills are there... It was our game intensity and speed that were the main problems.

"We don't play fast enough back in Brunei, so I'll be looking to discuss a few things with my coach and hopefully we can have such training and improvise," he added.

But all is not lost for them as they are still in the singles competition which starts today.

Tay was awarded a walkover win and will join Yu in the main round of the tournament after his opponent, Yi-Hsiang Yang of Chinese Taipei, failed to turn up during the qualifying round game yesterday.

"Now I'm looking to focus on my singles event tomorrow (today) so I'll put the doubles behind me for the time being," said the bronze medalist at the 2004 Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) Friendship Games and the 2009 Borneo Games.

Yu will meet Malaysian Wong Kin Yik in today's singles event, with the 24-year-old looking forward to avenging his 21-18, 21-13 defeat to the latter at the Maybank Malaysia International Challenge 2012 in Kuching, Sarawak, in November last year.

Tay, meanwhile, will face Joe Wu from New Zealand.

"I have played in many tournaments before so I can say that I have the experience competing in a tournament of this level," said Tay.

"But I haven't been competing for few years now and it will take a few tournaments for me to regain my speed and edge in the competition.

"Wu is a very tough opponent to play against and he has played in many international tournaments before, including a defeat against Vietnamese world class player Tien Minh Nguyen," added Tay.

This year's tournament will feature a number of world class players including 2008 Olympics mixed-doubles gold medalist Lee Yong-dae, Malaysian star Hafiz Hashim and Tien, who is ranked fifth in the BWF World Ranking.

Organised by the Chinese Taipei Badminton Association the tournament is sanctioned by BWF and Badminton Asia Confederation (BAC).

Courtesy from Brunei Times