Badminton: Hafiz makes an early exit By RAJES PAUL Star Online PETALING JAYA: National number two Mohd Hafiz Hashim suffered a big blow to his morale ahead of the World Championships next month. He was beaten by a Russian shuttler in the second round of the Philippines Open in Manila yesterday. Hafiz, who was the defending champion, squandered a 20-16 lead in the second game and went down to a 21-13, 21-23, 13-21 defeat by Stanislav Pukhov. With the defeat, Hafiz will suffer a further slide in the world rankings from number 13 and he can forget about getting a seeding for the World Championships, which will be held at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil from Aug 13-19. Second seed Lee Chong Wei, Chan Kwong Beng, Sairul Amar Ayob and Lee Tsuen Seng won their second round matches. But only Chong Wei advanced with a 21-12, 21-16 win over England’s Andrew Smith in the third round and he will play against China’s Gong Weijie today for a place in the semi-finals. Hafiz was not the only major casualty in yesterday’s action. Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia and China’s Bao Chunlai were also shown the exit. Vietnamese Tien Minh Nguyen beat Taufik 21-18, 21-13 in the second round while Chunlai was sent packing in the third round by Singaporean Ronald Susilo, losing 14-21, 8-21. After seeing Hafiz dish out another poor performance, coach Misbun Sidek said that he had lowered his expectations on the player for the World Championships. “I get headaches just thinking about Hafiz. He led 20-16 but lost ... he was over confident. The Russian gained confidence in the rubber game and Hafiz simply could not turn the game around,” said Misbun in a telephone interview from Manila. “I am really upset with Hafiz. I am trying my best to help him but he is not helping himself. He is not injured and his physical condition is good. The world meet is just around the corner and, based on his current form, I am not expecting anything from him in the championships.” In the men’s doubles, top seeds Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong are the only Malaysian pair left in contention for the title. They scored a convincing 21-8, 21-14 win over Denmark’s Rasmus Mangor Andersen-Peter Buur Steffensen in the second round and will take on Indonesians Rian Sukmawan-Yonathan Suryatama Dasuki in the quarter-finals. i also really disappointed with HH..
Well, now Hafiz have "upgraded" himself from being beaten by peers in the top 20 bracket, to players from emerging European badminton nations. Russia have followed the Dutch and the Germans, later they will be followed by Poles, French, Bulgarians etc to scalp him consistently now ..... Sometimes I wonder, how did he beat BCL in the pressure cooker Thomas Cup semis 2002 in China, and win the All-England against CH the following year.
HOw do you make a champion out of somone who does not want to be a champion? NO coach in the world can do that. I would not worry about Hafiz, i am just sad for misbun for all the effort he put in, hafiz does not seem to be giving anything back. I was a and still am a hifiz fan, at his best he was darn hard to beat, but i think the drive have left him, no more fire, I also wonder if he truly loves the sport anymore.
I dont doubt that for 1 second, LYB wouldnt stand for that. Look at WCH, he's older than HH, married a year earlier, suffered a serious ankle injury and he fought back and improved, tournament by tournament, to get to china master final.
Come on...remember TH was leading 20-16 against LCW in china masters and lost frist set to 20-22 even 2nd set, TH had to win 22-20....so there is no surprise....there is no quarantee even you are holding match points.... Remember how LCW beat LD in Malay open after LD was leading 20-11 or 12..., LCW eventually won the set plus the match...
This is what chinese says "不争气"! I never treat Hafiz as a greater player & never have any expectations from him. But I just feel very sorry for Misbun & BAM.
One thing to note here is the world ranking! TH, LD & LCW are in the top 10. Hafiz is in the top 16 whereas Pukhov is a guy who has to play qualification rounds in order to play in the main draw!
true, i watched the Mal. Open webcast and later video, i have some reaons for LD's lost but u guys prolly say cooler's excuses for LD. Anyway, all pros have occasional mental lapse. In LD's case, he has more than enough titles to compensate those rare lost due to mental error. Also, LD lost was to top players TH, LCW). In HH's case, he is finding new ways of losing, tournament by tournament. This time to a lower ranked european player, and HH was owning his opponent on the first set too.
I know....but still , in sport, you may not know..even in tennis many players rank over 100 can beat top 20 players...basically nothing is impossible ( promoting Adidas here...)
I think we can't purely blame it on Hayofiz, after all is the lack of consistent and competent player in our national team other than LCW that make us but to put Hafiz on. KBH,LTS,Yogendran and bunch of other player couldn't even take the national number 2 title from him. Every player got his downtime, LCW, WCH, KKK/TBH all suffered from it and why not Hafiz. I believe he took it harder than everyone of us can ever imagine having to spent so many times training or going overbroad leaving his new-married wife at home just to lose to a lower rank player after holding the match point and having all his country man including his coach bashing at him. See?
Really wonder why HH was given so many chance by BAM.... They should kick him out of national team... Hopeless players ! Keeps on losing to less known players... BAM should save the money spend on him and send more juniors players abroad for tournaments instead !
I can't remember of Hafiz winning any titles after the surprise win in AE03. Winnng AE03 could have been a mistake, maybe I'm wrong!
Well...I am really dissapointed with him.While LCW is fighting so hard just to bring glory to Mas and see what he do.He don't has any excuses and shouldn't has any excuses about his condition now.I watched the game he played against Boonsak in China Master,he is simply lazy and he didn't treat it as a competition at all.Our tolerance and chances to him should end here.Really feel angry whenever taking about him.
