Monday, January 24, 2011
It was not the first time he turned up to watch Lee Chong Wei, but the world No. 1 was certainly surprised when he saw Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at the Putra Stadium on Sunday.
Chong Wei’s (left) emphatic 21-8, 21-17 thrashing of former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia bodes well as he is in for a tough time in this week’s VICTOR Korea Open Superseries Premier, badminton world’s first ever US$1 million tournament.
The total prize money is US$1.2 million which makes it one of five OSIM BWF World Superseries Premier tournaments. The other four are YONEX All England Superseries Premier 2011 (March 8-13), DJARUM Indonesian Open Superseries Premier 2011 (June 21-26), Denmark Superseries Premier 2011 (Oct 18-23) and LI NING China Open Superseries Premier 2011 (Nov 22-27).
Chong Wei, who is the top seed in Seoul, left for the Korean capital on Sunday night, but not before having dinner with Datuk Seri Najib and his wife Datin Rosmah Mansor, Tun Dr Siti Hasmah and several top Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) officials. He vowed to repay their faith in him by giving his best in Korea.
“I always give my best and you can expect the same in Korea, even though I have an extremely difficult draw,” said Chong Wei, of his chances in Seoul where he has been drawn in the same half as as Jan O Jorgensen, Chen Jin, Bao Chunlai and Park Sung Hwan.
“I always want to do well in the World Championships and hopefully I can make a breakthrough this year.”
With Seoul currently blanketed by snow, the decision by some top Europeans shuttlers, in particular former South Korea winner Peter Gade, may work in their favour.
Chong Wei will have to be at his very best if he is to repeat his performance from 2010 where he won three back-to-back tournaments at the start of the year – Korea and Malaysia Opens and All England.
This year, he has already captured the VICTOR BWF Super Series Finals crown in early January and the PROTON Malaysia Open.
Meanwhile, Hidayat (right) has challenged Chong Wei to win a world title or Olympic title before he retires. 
The Indonesian said Chong Wei, who has won 16 Superseries crowns since 2007, needs to add a major title to his CV before he can join the true badminton greats.
“Chong Wei proved he is the King of the Superseries by winning in Malaysia but he now needs to go on and win either the world title or Olympic gold or even both,” said Hidayat. “That is the only thing lacking in his legacy as truly great player.
“Chong Wei is a good friend and I hope he succeeds in these two major tournaments. He is always at the top of his game in the Superseries but has yet to reproduce that form in the World Championships.”
Since the beginning of the Superseries tournaments in 2007, Chong Wei has won the Indonesia, Japan and French Opens (2007), Malaysia and Singapore Opens (2008), Malaysia, Swiss, Indonesia and Hong Kong Opens (2009), South Korea, Malaysia, All England, Indonesia, Japan and Hong Kong Opens (2010) and this year’s Malaysia Open.
He has never gone beyond the semi-finals in the World Championships and was beaten in the 2008 Beijing Olympics by his arch rival Lin Dan of China.
Chong Wei will have seven months to chew on Hidayat’s comments before this year’s World Championships are held in London.
courtesy of BWF
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