MALAYSIA’S challenge in the US200,000 (RM760,000) Korean Open was restricted to the singles after both the men’s and women’s doubles pairs were crushed by their respective opponents in the first round of the five star tournament. World championships silver medallist Wong Choon Hann led the rest of the Malaysians into the third round of the men’s singles after staving off the challenge from Taiwan’s Liao Sheng Shiun 15-12, 15-6 in a second round match. Choong Hann’s next opponent will be Hong Kong’s naturalised Indonesia Agus Hariyanto, a match which the Malaysian should win comfortably. However, the quarter-finals will be the stern test for Choong Hann as he is expected to play the in-form Peter Gade Christensen, the former World No 1 and the All England runner-up two weeks ago. Joining Choong Hann in the third round are Roslin Hashim and Lee Chong Wei. Roslin needed only 32 minutes to dispatch Stuart Brehaut of Australia 15-7, 15-4 while Chong Wei had to struggle for an hour before subduing Korean Lee Cheol Ho 15-4, 13-15, 15-6. Roslin and Chong Wei will take on Germany’s Bjoern Joppien, who stunned Richard Vaughan (Wales) and Zhu Weilun (China), and Denmark’s Kenneth Jonassen respectively. In the women’s singles, Wonn Sze Mei and Sea Games gold medallist Wong Mew Choo progressed to the third round as well. Sze Mei beat Poland’s Nadiezda Kostiuczyk 11-6, 11-8 while Mew Choo humbled Jamaica’s Nigella Saunders 11-4, 11-1. Sze Mei, however, will face a tough time in the third round as she will take on third seed Zhang Ning of China while Mew Choo has a fighting chance against France’s Pi Hongyan, the seventh seed. The Frenchwoman is not in the same class as the Chinese shuttlers, and Mew Choo, who has never progressed beyond the third round of any international competition, can make a strong claim for a quarter-final berth. While it was a good day in the courts for the singles shuttlers, the men’s doubles pair of Chan Chong Ming-Chew Choon Eng crashed to another early defeat when they lost to Thailand’s Pramote Teerawiwatana-Tesana Panvisvas 15-13, 15-9. The women’s doubles pair of Wong Pei Tty-Chin Ee Hui also disappointed as they hardly struggled to get their game together to hand the match to the Taiwanese pair of Chien Yu Chin-Cheng Wen Hsing 15-0, 15-6.
A bit optimistic expecting Mew Choo to match Pi HY on the basis that Pi cannot quite match the top chinese. Agus H had an injury that prevented him from playing in the Swiss and All England. He might feel a bit fresher after the break. He may not be the pushover that the article suggests.....
women single and roslin lose today...... it mean wong choong hann and lee chong wei will keep malaysia flat flying........
