Chong Wei sets up re-match with Sony, but doubles pair ousted

Posted by Lucas Liau News 10:53 AM

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s top men shuttlers Lee Chong Wei and Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong experienced contrasting fortunes against Japanese players in the Indonesian Open in Jakarta yesterday.
The Malaysians were the top seeds in their respective events but only Chong Wei made it to the semi-final while Kien Keat-Boong Heong failed to live up to their billing and fell in the quarter-finals.
Yesterday, world No.1 Chong Wei overcame a strong draught in the stadium to maintain his unbeaten run against youngster Tago Kenichi with a hard-fought 21-12, 8-21, 21-12 win to reach the semi-finals.
With the win, he has set up a re-match against Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia for a place in the final.

Last week, Chong Wei lost to eventual champion Sony in the quarter-finals of the Singapore Open.
Sony prevented an all-Malaysian affair in the semi-final when he easily took down Malaysian veteran Wong Choong Hann winning 21-11, 21-17.
The other semi-final today will be between second seed Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia and Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh.
National chief coach Rashid Sidek said that Chong Wei can exact revenge against Sony.
“Despite the strong wind in the stadium, Chong Wei did well to beat Tago who went on the offensive from the start and it did pose a challenge for Chong Wei but I am happy that he pulled through,” said Rashid in a telephone interview.
It was Chong Wei’s third meeting against Tago.
He had faced a stiff resistance from the 20-year-old in the All-England final before winning it in March but last month he hardly raised any sweat in his win over Tago in a group tie of the Thomas Cup Finals.
“Chong Wei has been playing well here so far. He has a chance to make amends after losing to Sony last week. The advantage, however, is with Sony as he has homeground advantage. I hope Chong Wei will get the better of him.”
Kien Keat and Boon Heong was disappointed that they ended their back-to-back campaign in Singapore and Indonesia without any outstanding results.
They were beaten in the second round of the Singapore Open last week and yesterday, they went down 21-13, 19-21, 18-21 to Hirokatsu Hashimoto-Noriyasu Hirata despite getting off to a excellent start.
“We defeated them easily in the Thomas Cup Finals (the group tie against Japan) but today, we had the right game plan but committed too many mistakes,” said Kien Keat.
Today, Hirokatsu-Noriyasu will take on Cho Gun-woo-Kwon Yi-goo of South Korea while the other semi-final will be between England’s Anthony Clark-Nathan Robertson and Fang Chieh-min-Lee Sheng-mu of Taiwan.