Badminton: Hafiz makes an early exit By RAJES PAUL 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.
wow, if even misbun looks like giving up on hafiz, i dont think the rest of malaysia will have anymore faith in him. he has been in a terrible slump for so long. maybe someone should brainwash him and get him to think about winning again and not just participating for the sake of it. i want to have faith in him, i really do.
In what year Hafiz won the AE Championship? Year 2004 rite? He is slump after that. 3 years.. man.. how long more can u wait.. i think he is hopeless.. maybe he need to find others job..
A countless of motivation class/camp they had attended. Just recently they had one in Sarawak or Sabah(not sure) for MS. And MD Rexy brought them Melaka... But, what Hafiz learn from these camp. An "egg"! Zero !! Nothing at all.. He is really in Big trouble !!!
two words, time's up.... As much as Hafiz is good potentially, he always bombs up during tournaments... Good player, but time is running out...
out you go....out out out..........but then no more malay single players adee....all dominated by chinese
and..never hit the bottom...and never rebounce.........or maybe he is trying to learn from TH...just to concentrate for the big tournament like WC07....he will shine...dont worry...he will...........just wait...and wait....wait.....wa....w.....z..z...zzzzzzzzzzzz
HH definitely wont shine at ALL at WC07.. Trust me... He will probably suffer another early round exists to an lesser known players !
there's nothing to worry about there are still many other youngsters i.e. TCS, CKB, Arif....doing better n better..... for Hafiz, at least he won the 2003 AE championship, better than nothing to those other players like LTS, Yogan...KBH.... n even PEI WEI CHUNG (in fact i don't know why he participated almost all tournaments but NEVER REACHED THE 2ND ROUND.....)
When Hafiz was good.... I laughed when i read about the headache part... Someone sent me this clip of Hafiz... call him whatever now.. but, geez.. he was good then. I won't say he's a bad player.. but.. guess there's something bothering him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP1aGxMRE-s For those who didn't know, that song at the background is called 'Standing in the Eyes of the World' by Ella (Malaysian Rock Queen) - song written esp for Commonwealth Games 1998. Very good lyrics. For those who dunno Malay, here's the English lyrics, which I think is incomplete with some words missing (English version is by David Gates) - after which... you'll be so inspired.. that you want to grab your racquet and go give your best shot... Looking back all the years all the sacrifice if you wanna be the best you've got to pay the price learning from the very start just how hard you must try coz if you don't spread your wings then you can't fly look at where you are today did you ever think that you would came all this way # now you're standing in the eyes of the world only moments somewhere from what can be theres a passion in the hearts of..... ever waiting inside to be set free when the times come and your spirit takes .... and you reach into your soul and leave it with all of your mind and theres no surprise that you're standing in the eyes of the world many had hopes and dreams that would not come true and all of them left behind now they will leaving you everyone wants to say just the day in the sun sometimes theres only ... never ever been so near now the chance thats finally here repeat # and everyone tries when you standing in the eyes of the world standing in the eyes of the world
I think in times like these, I do prefer taufik-ist, or indra, who are true fans till the end, lose or win, of Taufik Hidayat. -dave
Haha.. JC, I laughed when reading about that headache thingy too.. Err, they spelled CHENG Hong instead of Chen Hong in that video.. After watching the video, people will pity Hafiz even more..
sigh.. hafiz is simply inconsistent... sometimes he perform well but most of the time he was outbeaten by unknown players... i really think tat he should retire n give away his place to a better n more consistent player.. should give WCH a chance at WC rather then hafiz..
Actually Hafiz has been quite consistent in term of losing, he hardly advance deep into the round like he used to. They say consistency is good but I hope Hafiz don't continue his consistency trend of losing, so discouraging to his fan and coach.