Skip to main content

Double shock: Shuttlers Chong Wei and Lin Dan fall in last eight

WORLD number one Lee Chong Wei and favourite Lin Dan made shocking quarter-final exits from the World Championships yesterday.
An unexpected back injury saw top seed Chong Wei going down 15-21, 21-11, 12-21 to Indonesian Taufik Hidayat while three-time world champion Lin Dan of China lost tamely 13-21, 13-21 to Park Sung-hwan of South Korea.

The defeat to Taufik crushed Chong Wei’s childhood dream of becoming the country’s first world champion.
This is the third time that he has failed to live up to his tag as the top seed in the world meet.

Double shock:Chong Wei Lee of Malaysia plays a shot against Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia during their men's single quarterfinal match at the World Badminton Championships in Paris, Friday Aug, 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) 
 
 
Lin Dan of China also fell.
In the last two occasions, he was also beaten by an Indonesian – Sony Dwi Kuncoro – in Kuala Lumpur 2007 (third round) and Hyderabad 2009 (quarter-finals).
Ironically, Chong Wei’s last defeat to Taufik was also in Paris two years ago in the semi-finals of the French Open.

And the last time Taufik defeated Chong Wei in the world series, the Indonesian went on to win the title in 2005.

Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei reacts after he lost to Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat in the men's singles quarterfinals at the BWF World Badminton Champhionships in Paris, August 27, 2010. Taufik won 21-15, 11-21, 21-12. GLENN GUAN/The Star (Paris) 
 
Taufik, who will now take on Sung-hwan, has a good chance to make the final again after five years.
Chong Wei concluded that the world meet is jinxed as far as he is concerned.
“I am just not lucky when it comes to the world meet. This has happened too many times,” said a dejected Chong Wei.

“I know this will sound as a lame excuse but I had picked up a back injury. I have never been down with this injury before.”
The Malaysian claimed he sustained the back injury during the easy third round win over Rajiv Ouseph of England.

Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat celebrates after defeating Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei in the men's singles quarterfinals at the BWF World Badminton Champhionships in Paris, Friday. Taufik won 21-15, 11-21, 21-12. GLENN GUAN/The Star (Paris) 
 
“My back is swollen. The doctors had a look at it. I thought I could bear the pain but I found it very painful when I jumped. That’s why I was quite slow today,” said Chong Wei.
Chong Wei lacked speed in his opening game to allow Taufik to race to a 21-15 win.

The Malaysian regained his composure to take the second game 21-11 and even led Taufik 10-8 in the decider.

But, according to Chong Wei, the pain worsened at this stage and he just threw the match.
“I am not sure about my plans after this. It is best that I get proper treatment for the injury first,” he said.



Star

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-coach's jail sentence cut to a year

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday sentenced former athletics coach C. Ramanathan to 12 months' jail for molesting two junior athletes 19 years ago. A three-man bench led by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus unanimously dismissed Ramanathan's appeal against conviction, but varied the jail sentence of four years to a year, which was to run concurrently. Following yesterday's ruling, Ramanathan, 75, a former teacher, walked out a free man as he had served 10 months in Kajang Prison. Convicts get one-third remission for good behaviour while in prison. However, he will lose his pension. Hishamudin, who sat with Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert, said the court found no merit to overturn the conviction. "However, in reducing the sentence, we considered Ramanathan's age and the long years the appeal has taken." Deputy public prosecutor Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that then High Court judge Tan Sri Abdull Hamid E...
2 comments
Read more

Badminton: Fans rooting for all-Malaysian semis

Reports: RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: The home fans will be rooting for an all-Malaysian men’s singles semi-final between Lee Chong Wei and Liew Daren. But Chong Wei is more fancied to advance than Daren in quarter-final matches against Indonesian Simon Santoso and Dane Peter Gade-Christensen respectively at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil today. Yesterday, Chong Wei defeated Vietnamese Nguyen Tien Minh 21-9, 18-21, 21-7 in a second-round match that saw the world number one struggling to adapt to the draught in the stadium in the second game. And Daren continued a fairy tale run in his home Open, blowing away a toothless Hsueh Hsuan-yi of Taiwan 21-14, 21-12. Although Choong Wei had to slog for the win over Tien Minh, the top seed and defending champion felt that he was playing better by the day. “I got off to a good start but found it hard to cope with the draught. I tried to catch up after losing my momentum but that did not happen and I decided to conserve energy for ...
11 comments
Read more

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...
4 comments
Read more