Time for revenge in PROTON Malaysian Open

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Arguably the two best badminton players in the world – Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei and China’s Lin Dan – are set for an early clash in the PROTON Malaysian Open which takes place at Putra Stadium, Bukit Jalil from Jan 18-23. They are in the same half of the draw which was released on Tuesday and are likely to clash in the semi-finals.

World No. 1 Chong Wei is the top seed while three-time world champion and reigning Olympic and Asian Games winner Lin Dan is seeded fifth. Lin Dan defeated Chong Wei to win both the Olympic and Asian Games gold medal.

In the other half of the draw, former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat (picture), who will be gunning for only his second ever Super Series title, starts as the  second seed.

The draw is just as tough as Hidayat has China’s Chen Jin, the man who beat him in the World Championship final five months ago for company.

As such, the semi-finals could be the perfect stage for Chong Wei and Hidayat to avenge their recent losses to their Chinese nemesis.

Besides Chen Jin, the other notable names in this half are China’s Bao Chunlai, Indonesian Sony Dwi Kuncoro, Thailand’s Boonsak Ponsana but Hidayat, faces a baptism of fire when he meets South Korea’s Park Sung Hwan in the opening round.

Chong Wei, who is gunning for his seventh Malaysian Open title, begins his defence with a match against a qualifier and is scheduled to meet the winner of the Hu Yun-Parupali Kashyap match-up.

If everything goes as plan, Chong Wei will then face Thailand’s eighth seed Tien Minh Nguyen in the quarter-finals before a likely meeting with Lin Dan in the final four.

Standing in Lin Dan’s way is third seeded compatriot Chen Long, whom he is scheduled to meet in the quarter-finals.

The other players in this half of the draw are Japanese duo Sho Sasaki and Kazushi Yamada and two Malaysian veterans – Mohd Hafiz Hashim and Wong Choong Hann.

The Chinese women are set to dominate the women’s singles, with Wang Xin, Wang Shixian (left), Wang Yihan and Jiang Yanjiao seeded first to fourth respectively.

Their path to the semi-finals was made easier with the withdrawal of former world No. 2 Sania Nehwal of India, who is still nursing an ankle injury which kept her out of the on-going VICTOR BWF Super Series Finals in Taiwan. Nehwal picked up the injury en route to beating Wang Shixian in the Hong Kong Open final last month.   

She was the one player the Chinese juggernaut feared the most and with the Indian now out of the way, the three Wangs and Jiang Yanjiao should have no problem reaching the semi-finals.

In the men’s doubles, defending champions Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia are the top seeds in the absence of Denmark’s world No. 1s Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen.

The Malaysians, who have dropped one rung to No. 2 in the world rankings, will start their campaign against Copenhagen Masters champions Conrad Petersen-Jonas Rasmussen of Denmark.

The other pairs in their half are South Koreans Cho Gun-woo-Kwon Yi-goo, Indonesians Alven Yulianto-Hendra Gunawan and Chai Biao-Guo Zhengdong of China and Lee Wan Wah-Chan Chong Ming of Malaysia.

South Koreans Ko Sung-hyun-Yoo Yeon-seong are the second seeds and they have Indonesians Candra Wijaya-Luluk Hadiyanto, Japanese Hirokatsu-Hashimoto-Noriyasu Hirata and Malaysians Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Ong Soon Hock and Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Hoon Thien How for company in their half of the draw.

World No. 1s Cheng Wen Hsing-Chien Yu Chin will open their women’s doubles campaign against Chinese dark horses Du Jing-Pan Pan. The Chinese duo may be a new pair, but are a dangerous combination.

The Bulgarian-Russian combination of Petya Nedelcheva-Anatasia Russkikh are the second seeds and go in search of their first Super Series tournament victory.

Meanwhile, Sudket Prapakamol-Saralee Thoungthongkam of Thailand and Ko Sung Hyun-Ha Jung Eun of South Korea are the top two seeds in the mixed doubles.

article by www.bwfbadminton.org

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