During the Qatar tournament, Shasha's sluggish state in the first round of the mixed doubles stemmed from a narrow upset loss to her teammate Chen Xingtong in the round of sixteen for the women's singles.
In truth, her skill level was slightly higher than that of Tongtong. Yet, whether it was the mindset that they all played together regularly and were good sisters who shouldn't fight too fiercely, or the feeling that this wasn't an international match and losing wouldn't have a massive impact since internal team matches were dime a dozen and she could just win next time—Shasha played relatively conservatively against both Chen Xingtong and her other teammates, lacking ruthlessness.
Even so, being defeated zero to four left her feeling utterly miserable. While reflecting on whether she should have gone for a short push instead of looping with a wide angle on that particular shot, she began to doubt her own tactics and strokes. This inner wavering directly impacted her performance in both the women's doubles and the mixed doubles.
Chapter 83