Skip to main content

Chong Wei eyes Macau Open crown after Lin Dan’s withdrawal


PETALING JAYA: Four-time world champion Lin Dan has withdrawn from tomorrow’s Macau Open, leaving Malaysia’s world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei with the chance to gun down his eighth Open title of the season.

Chong Wei has decided to stick with his plan to compete in his 13th international Open of the year and win the Macau Open crown for the third time in a row.

In Chong Wei’s top half are two youngsters from China – Wang Zhengming and Du Pengyu; three Indonesians – Simon Santoso, Sony Dwi Kuncoro, Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka; South Korean Shon Wan-ho; Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki and a host of Malaysians – reigning world junior champion Zulfadli Zulkifli, Beryno Wong, Liew Daren and Goh Soon Huat.

Chong Wei has a tricky first round date with Thailand’s upcoming youngster Suppanyu Avihingsanon but his real threat could be either Simon or Wang.

Without favourite Lin Dan, who won back-to-back titles in the Hong Kong and China Opens, the fight for a ticket to the final from the bottom half of the draw will be among South Korea’s Lee Hyun-il, Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat and Tommy Sugiarto; Japan’s Kenichi Tago and several Malaysian players led by former international Mohd Hafiz Hashim.

Former All-England champion Hafiz, who is now playing under the KLRC banner, is hoping to turn in a good showing to earn a place in Malaysia’s Thomas Cup Finals squad.
Currently, besides Chong Wei, no other back-up players have proved their worth for a place in the premier world team event.

“Lin Dan will not be around and that is good news.
“He has pocketed two titles in the last two weeks and he can afford to take a rest.
“I will give my best to earn a place in the Thomas Cup squad,” said Hafiz.

Hafiz takes on South Korean Lee Dong-keun in the opening round and victory will pit him against compatriot Chan Kwong Beng, who is in the second round following Lin Dan’s withdrawal. Lin Dan’s absence was confirmed during the team managers’ meeting yesterday.

The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM)’s coaching and training chairman Ng Chin Chai said he had spoken to coach Tey Seu Bock in Macau yesterday on Chong Wei’s condition following his back-to-back defeats to Lin Dan in the semi-finals of the Hong Kong and China Opens.

“Seu Bock gave an assurance that Chong Wei is not suffering from fatigue. The coach should know best about his player’s condition and the green light has been given for Chong Wei to continue playing,” said Chin Chai.

With the turn of events in Macau yesterday, it looks like badminton fans will only get one more chance to witness a clash between Lin Dan and Chong Wei this season when the duo renew their rivalry in the Super Series Masters Finals, which will be held in Liuzhou, China, from Dec 14-18.



By RAJES PAUL - The 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