The Star Sports Tuesday April 3, 2007 Badminton: ABC loses its lustre By LIM TEIK HUAT PETALING JAYA: The Asian Badminton Championships (ABC) in Johor Baru from April 10-15 was supposed to be the event to showcase the star players of the continent. Good chance: Wong Mew Choo is expected to do well in the women’s singles event. Apart from the presence of Olympic and world champion Taufik Hidayat, that is if he does not change his mind at the last minute, leading players from China, South Korea and Indonesia have opted to skip the championships. The ABC is the last tournament for them to pick up ranking points for qualification for the World Championships in Kuala Lumpur in August. The Olympic qualifying period begins on May 1 and the Asian badminton powerhouses have chosen to keep their top players at home to prepare for the Singapore and Indonesia Opens next month. With the absence of three of the top four pairs in the world – Fu Haifeng-Cai Yun of China, Lee Yong-dae-Jung Jae-sung of South Korea and Markis Kidho-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia – another title is for the taking for current Malaysian badminton sensations Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong. From the draw released yesterday, the duo, who won the back-to-back All-England and Swiss Open titles last month, only have their own team-mates to worry about. Ranked 10th in the world, Kien Keat-Boon Heong are the second seeds behind defending champions Lee Wan Wah-Choong Tan Fook. Kien Keat-Boon Heong should face some resistance from Tan Bin Shen-Ong Soon Hock but national chief coach Yap Kim Hock believes that they still hold the upper hand to win their third consecutive and fifth international title. “Their quality of play is better than the rest of the ABC field at this moment. This will be a good chance for them to win the title and get among the top 10 in the world ahead of the World Championships,” said Kim Hock. Top Malaysian singles player Lee Chong Wei is the top seed but he has two bogeymen in his path and faces an uphill task in the defence of the title. Chong Wei, who has returned to train with former coach Misbun Sidek in a bid to regain his old touch, has Olympic and world champion Taufik in his quarter of the draw. He was beaten in straight games in the last two matches against the Indonesian – in the 2005 World Championships in Anaheim and in the Japan Open last year. If Chong Wei can turn the tables on Taufik, he is likely to play China’s Chen Yu for a place in the final. The third seeded Chinese enjoys a psychological edge over the Malaysian, having emerged as the winner in three of five previous meetings. With China’s top three – Lin Dan, Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai – skipping the meet, Chen Hong is the second seed. He is tipped to play against Malaysian number two Mohd Hafiz Hashim in the semi-finals. In the women’s singles, Malaysian Open runner-up Wong Mew Choo is the eighth seed but has a good chance to go far if she beats Indonesia’s Francesca Ratnasari in the first round. Also in Mew Choo’s path is fellow Malaysian junior Lydia Cheah, Japan’s Kaori Mori and China’s Lu Lan, whom she beat in the first round of the All-England.
i have interest only in TH and LCW match and WMC match. WMC might win the WS. KKK and TBH will most probably win MD or maybe the other malaysian doubles so no fight there.
I too would like to see Miss Wong win the WS, but this is a very big "might win"....WC and the CHN girls, JYJ and LL are no pushovers, even tough WMC might have home advantage. As for MS, CY and CH (one oldie, the other retired) are enough to give the rest of the world fits...talk about domination and abundance of talents. LOL!
Your views are as bias as mine. I think LCW should get this in the bag coz taufik has not played for a while (missed 3 tournaments) and Chen Yu has just recovered from injury.
Hafiz should be able to take care of Chen Hong in the other half --- chen hong is now semi retired. If one cannot take care of Chen Hong, then I think it would be difficult to win against CJ, CY or BAO later.
Chen hong didnt reli retire....at least not now. he said he continues to train after he announced his retirement. just that he missed a month's tournament only.
I still believe that Chen Hong is one of the strong player and he might win it...Well, may the best player win.I just hope to see an interesting match no matter who win it.
CH is on par or better than CJ, CY and BCL, based on end 2006 result and as fit as any CHN players...have you ever watch CH play live (I did in WC05), and if CH is allowed to play LD all out with no fixed, it is anybody's game to win. To say that "if one cannot take care of Chen Hong, then I think it would be difficult to win against CJ, CY or BAO later", it should be reworded to "if one cannot take care of CJ, CY or BAO , then I think it would be difficult to win against CH at any time". I have said many times in this forum, and as Li ling Wei (CHN OLY council and lone badminton representative in OLY council) encourage CHN to permit their ex-players to play for other countries, CH and XXZ would be welcomed with open arms in MAS, just think what impact that would be in Thomas Cup with CH, XXZ, LCW, TBH/KKK and another strong MAS MD in the lineup??? The game would definitely be wide open and threaten CHN domination. Of course this would not happen but we can dream that in our lifetime we can see this, hahaha! And if that happens Mr Yo-Yo HH can play reserve or carry the towels and bring the water bottles for the players. Just that HH beat CH in 2003 AE does not make HH a better player than CH...hahaha!!! LOL!
You are one tough Birdie with your derogation of HH. CH was a great player...age has caught up, don't think he can spin the magic too long.
let's see how Hafiz performs. he is a yoyo player. maybe ABC will be his high form or poor form. if he is in good form, he can win against CH. if not, we need to wait for the next tournament for him to yoyo up again.
ouch. hafiz must be pressured to perform well. if he beat chen hong, people will simply say because chen hong nearly retired already. if he does not beat chen hong, then people will question his ability to play top level anymore. hafiz never does well with pressure. when he won all england, nobody knew who he was and malaysia did not even air the tournament live. with a nothing to lose attitude, he won. now? i hope he goes back to the nothing to lose attitude mode. after all, hafiz, you really have nothing to lose right?
I really dont understand WHY WHY WHY CH still wanna play after wat The China Team has already OFFICIALLY sang song, confirming his retirement, erected the Flag, etc . . .Bad news for LCW. As for Hafiz, i will choose to Sleep than to see him play, he likes to play RUBBER GAME isnt ?? Drag the Game until Tie then losing it gradually, with his SLOW MOTION & LAZY movement (sorry but my earnest opinion). He is NO match of CH even if CH is 10 Years older than him, even after CH is over 30yrs old, 40yrs old, 50yrs old, 60yrs old ! ! ! Me, on fire everytime if talk about him, even if ask all the SIDEK brothers to coach him, change one after another, THE BEST COACH i would say ---> to NO extend for HIM !!!
Don't forget that Hafiz not too long ago sent Malaysia into euphoria when he beat everybody to become the AE Champion after how many long years since Tan Aik Huang last won the event. As I recalled, the celebrations were even more joyous and pompous than that given to KKK/TBH and maybe the rewards and incentives were more attractive. If only Hafiz could visualize once more those happy moments and how he did it! He may well give us another huge surprise, now that he has LCW as his regular sparring partner, I presume, since he has gone back to Misbun.
