Koo-Tan may be the only Malaysian pair at World Championships

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong may be the only elite pair to represent Malaysia in the World Championships this year following the poor showing by two other senior combinations in the ongoing German Open at Mulheim.
Yesterday, Kien Keat-Boon Heong stormed into the semi-finals of the German Open with a convincing 21-16, 21-14 win over Russians Vitalij Durkin-Alexandr Nikolaenko.
They will take on the winner of the match between Lee Yong-dae-Jung Jae-sung of South Korea and Japan’s Naoki Kawamae-Shoji Sato in the last four.
On Thursday, world No. 5 Kien Keat-Boon Heong saved the blushes for Malaysia when they checked into the quarter-finals with a sensational 21-17, 21-13 win over China’s Liu Xiaolong-Qiu Zihan in the second round.
Durkin-Nikolaenko had earlier tamed former internationals Gan Teik Chai-Tan Bin Shen 23-25, 21-16, 21-12.
It was also all over for two other Malaysian elite pairs – Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Ong Soon Hock and Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Hoon Thien How.
Fairuzizuan-Soon Hock went down 14-21, 18-21 to South Koreans Kim Ki-jung-Kim Sang-ra in the second round on Thursday.
The Zakry-Thien How partnership suffered a shocking 14-21, 11-21 loss to Denmark’s Rasmus Bonde-Anders Kristiansen in the opening round a day earlier.
With their early exits, both Fairuzizuan-Soon Hock (world No. 42) and Zakry-Thien How (world No. 51) have failed to rake in some useful world ranking points.
Now, these two pairs will have to break into the top-24 bracket by April if they hope to qualify for the World Championships in London in August.
Meanwhile, Wong Mew Choo stayed alive when she defeated Bae Seung-hee of South Korea 21-19, 13-21, 21-10 to set up a quarter-finals clash against Russian Anastasia Prokopenko.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 9:10 PM. Filed under Latest News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0