Check out this article in the Star (8 July/05). At the bottom, you will see that they reported Singapore had 3 players in the WS quarters (Li Li, Lu Lan and Zhu Lin. Talk about instant residency! Lord help us (rolls eyes). [size=+2]Hafiz and Chong Wei carry on Malaysia's fight[/size] BY RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: The men’s singles of the Proton Malaysian Open Badminton Championships at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton (KLBA) Stadium here today offers two mouth-watering matches involving the top two Malaysian players. National number one and defending champion Lee Chong Wei will play against Athens Olympic gold medallist Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia for a place in the semi-finals while Mohd Hafiz Hashim will take on Dane Peter Gade-Christensen. Yesterday, Chong Wei took only 28 minutes to beat Dicky Palyama of Holland 15-6, 15-4 in a third round match while Taufik, who won the Singapore Open last Sunday, advanced with 15-11, 15-6 win over Singaporean Kendrick Lee. The 22-year-old Chong Wei will be out to turn the tables on Taufik today. He lost to the talented Indonesian in the second round of the Asian Badminton Championships last year at the same venue. “Taufik is the favourite. But I will be ready to give him a good fight. What I have to do is not to concede easy points,” said Chong Wei. Taufik is confident that he can remain on top of Chong Wei. “I can win it. I will not only have Chong Wei as my opponent but also the crowd. But I relish playing in front of a big crowd,” he said. “My target before the World Championships (in Anaheim, California, from Aug 15-21) is to win one title and I did it in Singapore. It will be a bonus if I can go all the way to win another title here. I just hope I will have enough energy to sustain the pace.” Taufik added that the big one to win was the world title. His best show in three previous outings was a semi-final appearance in Seville in 2001. While Chong Wei will be out to record his first win over Taufik, Hafiz will be out to maintain his unbeaten run against Gade-Christensen. Hafiz booked his place in the quarter-finals with a 15-10, 15-11 win in 42 minutes over a surprisingly lethargic Athens Olympic silver medallist Shon Seung-mo of South Korea. Gade-Christensen in qualifying for the quarter-finals swept aside three Malaysians. After eliminating Lee Tsuen Seng the previous day, the hard-working Dane went on to knock out Mohd Roslin Hashim 4-15, 15-6, 15-7 in the second round yesterday morning and in the evening reduced an uninspiring Wong Choong Hann to tears, winning 15-11, 15-1. “Peter is in good form and he has already beaten three of my teammates. I don’t want to be the fourth. I have beaten him twice and I will give my best shots to stay unbeaten against him,” said the 22-year-old Hafiz. Hafiz defeated Gade-Christensen to win the Swiss Open this year. He also won the match in the friendly tie against Denmark in Alor Star recently. Top seed Lin Dan of China also marched into the quarter-finals and he will take on teammate Chen Hong for a place in the semi-finals. It was an outstanding day for Singapore in the women’s singles. Their China-born Li Li scored the biggest upset, beating top seed Xie Xingfang of China, who was troubled by a hamstring injury, 11-5, 7-11, 11-8 in the first round. Li Li went on to reach the quarter-finals with an easy 11-4, 11-2 win over Canadian Anna Rice. Her teammate Zhu Lian made it more memorable for Singapore with the elimination of eighth seeded Chinese Zhou Mi, winning the second round match 11-8, 1-11, 11-6. Singapore put three players in the quarter-finals when another China-born player, Lu Lan, upstaged Mia Audina of Holland 11-7, 2-11, 11-6.
nah, they got it wrong.. zhu lin and lu lan represent china, they are the new generation of chn players.. lu lan is only 17? if i am not wrong, she ws the runner up of the world junior c'ship last year..
Malaysian newspaper reports often get their facts wrong, even the reputable ones like The Star. I have no idea how they could have thought that the two girls are from Singapore.
what a funny story...? anyway.. if lu lan and zhu lin does come from singapore... it's also good... and big improvement for singapore WS
sarcasm?? you could easily verify their status in the official webbie. further, i dont think the chn team will let their promising youngsters to play for other countries. singapore's chn imports are mostly (if not all) players from the province level.
Yes I have to agree with Sunzhi. Although Singapore did not get the best from China or Indonesia, we strive to provide them with proper training, etc, within SBA's resources, so that these young foreign talents will have a chance to fully develop themselves. As I have just posted something on Li Li in the Malaysian Open forum you may wish to take a look at it. It is a Win-Win situation for the foreign talent and for Singapore. And we love to have foreign talents join us in any endeavour so that they can help us improve our country as a whole.
Lu Lan is one of the best young player in the china team ! lol Maybe Zhu Lin it's possible because she's in the B team, i think she is 21 y.o ? maybe she wants to participate to some world championship =p
true, very true.. had li li not been given the chance and provided with the proper training in singapore, i wonder whr wd she be now. some may not agree that her 'success' is 'made in singapore', i am sure she is proud of her citizen status and the country she calls home now.
People should quit making this an issue, I think Singapore has done the right thing this way, it is win-win.
I don't think he meant any malice, just errors. This is not the first time he has erred, believe me. Lim Teik Huat, my friend from The Star is far better, but he is covering Hockey World Juniors now.
Let me clarify. I was being sarcastic towards the reporter's ineptitude. Believe me, I am really happy Li Li has done so well for Singapore. Now if only they can ferret away Lu Lan and Zhu Lin...
