KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian players who suffered heartbreaks at the World Championships in Birmingham get the chance to make quick amends at the Singapore Open starting next Wednesday. In the draw released by the International Badminton Federation (IBF) yesterday, All-England champion Mohd Hafiz Hashim, who crashed out in the second round at Birmingham, has been drawn to meet top seed and world number one Chen Hong of China in the first round. Strangely enough, this is good news for Hafiz. He has a knack of beating the spunky Chinese, having overcome Chen Hong in their last three meetings. If he gets the better of the Chinese again, Hafiz will a smooth ride into the semi-finals. Hafiz could meet compatriot and World Championships runner-up Wong Choong Hann in the last four, if the latter can overcome challenges from Chinese youngsters Bao Chunlai and Lin Dan in the earlier stages. The 26-year-old Choong Hann will probably take on Chunlai in the third round. Lin Dan, who is expected to breeze past Malaysians Yong Hock Kin and Sairul Amar Ayob in the early rounds, will likely meet Choong Hann in the last eight. Said Choong Hann: “I have received a fair draw and my target is to reach at least the semi-finals. Chunlai was a semi-finalist in the world meet and I will certainly have to watch out for him. Hafiz has a good record against Chen Hong and he, too, can probably go far.” In the 2001 Singapore Open, Choong Hann finished as runner-up to Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia. Taufik is not competing in the US$170,000 (five-star) tournament. The draw, however, was unkind to Lee Tsuen Seng, Mohd Roslin Hashim and Yeoh Kay Bin as the trio may run into each other en route to the quarter-finals. Tsuen Seng and Roslin may meet in the second round. The winner will probably meet Kay Bin in the third. Tsuen Seng, a first round casualty at the World Championships, has a chance to make up for his disastrous outing if he reaches the quarter-finals. He will probably play world champion Xia Xuanze of China at that stage. The third seeded Xuanze is expected to play Ong Ewe Hock in the third round. Four Danes – second seed Kenneth Jonassen, Peter Gade-Christensen, Peter Rasmussen and Niels Christian Kaldau – will be battling each other in the same quarter to book one semi-final place. The Malaysia's doubles players, who returned home from Birmingham with one of Malaysia's worst results in the meet, have opportunities to reach at least the quarter-finals. World meet quarter-finalists Chan Chong Ming-Chew Choon Eng are expected to meet either Thailand's Pramote Teerawiwatana-Tesana Panvisvas or Indonesia's Trikus Hariyanto-Nova Widianto. If they advance, their opponents could be one of these three pairs – top seed Jens Eriksen-Martin Lundgaard Hansen (Den), Fu Haifeng-Cai Yun (Chn) and scratch pair Lee Dong-soo-Lee Jae-jin (Kor) – in the semi-finals. Tan Fook-Wan Wah are expected to face former world number one pair and Indonesian-born Flandi Limpele-Eng Hian of England in the last eight. In the absence of world number one Kim Dong-moon-Ha Tae-kwon of South Korea and Candra Wijaya-Sigit Budiarto of Indonesia, world champions and second seeds Lars Paaske-Jonas Rasmussen of Denmark are the favourites for the men's doubles title.
Will Chen Hong ever beat Hafiz? Will Wong Choon Han ever beat Xia Xuan Ze? Will Xia Xuan Ze ever beat Hendrawan or Ong Ewe Hock? Will Gade ever beat Xia ? Strange all these favoured playing styles.
Gade has beaten Xia before. On the first tournament that they faced each other after the Sydney Olympics, Gade avenged his Bronze medal game lost by beating Xia in the 2001 Korean Open
Interesting dog-running-after-its-own-tail analysis by Bbn. Style of play by individual players count a lot. What makes a true champion is that he can deal with this by being a thinking player. Somebody like Poul Erik Hoyer Larsen perhaps.
Xia Xuanze has beaten Hendrawan during the first two encounters, though lost the rest. And Xia did improved a lot in his net play as one can see in this past WC. He might have better chance to play against Hendrawan now.
A more interesting match up would be Kelly Morgan vs. Ye Zhaoying. Who could have thought that Ye would play Morgan twice in her illustrious career and lose both matches?
