Skip to main content

MACAU OPEN: Chong Wei won't go on

World No 1 pulls out due to fatigue

Lee Chong Wei
Lee Chong Wei

LEE Chong Wei, stung by two consecutive defeats to nemesis Lin Dan of China in as many weeks, withdrew from the Macau Open yesterday. 

The Malaysian World No 1, who lost to Lin Dan in the semi-finals of the Hong Kong and China Opens over the fortnight, is mentally and physically exhausted.

   BA of Malaysia (BAM) secretary Ng Chin Chai, who is also the chairman of the coaching and training conmittee, said Chong Wei didn't want to risk injury by competing in Macau.

   "Chong Wei said he was lethargic after the Hong Kong and China Opens and decided to withdraw from the Macau Open," said Chin Chai yesterday.

   "It is a long season and Chong Wei didn't want to risk suffering an injury.

   "In fact, we (the coaching committee) were not too keen in him competing in Macau but he wanted to see how his condition is after the first two events.

"I had a lengthy discussion with his coach Tey Seu Bock and Chong Wei also felt it would be best not to compete."

   Chong Wei was due to play Suppanyu Avihingsanon and the Thai will play Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan in the second round today.

   Chong Wei's withdrawal appeared to have a chain reaction as the Malaysian back-up players didn't fare well in the men's singles first round yesterday.

   Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin managed to get past the first round after an easy 21-9, 21-15 win over Jarolim Vicem of Slovakia while former national player Hafiz Hashim also secured a 21-13 18-21 21-10 win over Lee Dong Kuen of South Korea.

  However, Liew Daren failed to overcome China's Wang Zhengming when he lost 15-21, 21-17, 21-14 while Chong Wei Feng fell 19-21, 21-16, 21-14 to another China player Chen Yuekun.

   Arif Latif was also sent packing after a 19-21, 21-16, 21-13 loss to Taiwan's Hsueh Hsuan Yi while Goh Soon Huat was stopped 21-13, 21-17 by Taiwan's Teng Shih Hua.

Read more: NST

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