Sterling displays put Koo-Tan back in the good books

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s top pair Tan Boon Heong-Koo Kien Keat failed to win a second All-England title but several breakthroughs in Birmingham last week have put them back in the good books.
And Boon Heong is thankful that they have crawled out of a brief slump to earn themselves the recognition once again to be considered as one of the title contenders in the world championships, which will be held in London in August.
On Sunday, the duo let slip a five-point lead before going down 21-15, 18-21, 18-21 to Denmark’s Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen in the final.
But prior to the disappointment, the duo did extremely well to end a two-year losing streak against two of their bogeymen pairs – Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng of China (semi-finals) and Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia (quarter-finals).
Boon Heong, who played his best matches in recent times, expressed mixed emotions.
“Of course, it would have been perfect for us if we had won the All-England for a second time. It was one of our main missions this year. But our performances was not solid towards the end of the game (in the final),” lamented Boon Heong.
“We should have been more patient but we panicked when the Danes caught up from 11-16 and went on to pip us to the title.
“It was our fourth big heartbreak in a year. We also came very close in winning the world championships, Japan Open and Asian Games last year.”
Boon Heong-Kien Keat went down to Cai Yun-Haifeng in the final of the world championships and Japan Open. In the Guangzhou Asiad, Markis-Hendra shattered their dream to retain the title.
“We played well to beat Cai Yun-Haifeng and Markis-Kido.
“It brought back the confidence in ourselves. Now, all our focus will be on the world championships.”
Prior to the All-England, the duo did some soul-searching after poor performances at the Super Series Masters Finals and Malaysia Open. In the South Korea and German Opens, they had to play second fiddle to South Koreans Lee Yong-dae-Jung Jae-sung.
Generally, coach Rexy Mainaky was pleased with the strong performances by Kien Keat-Boon Heong.
“They showed to us that their standard are on par with several top pairs in the world. I hope that they will keep the momentum going and not sink back into complacency,” he said.
“For now, the Koreans (Jae-sung-Yong-dae and Ko Sung-hyun-Yoo Yeon-seong) are slightly better than them but we hope to bridge the gap ahead of the world championships. Our goal is to end an elusive chase for a world title (for Malaysia).”
Meanwhile, Rexy will continue work on a special physical training programme for Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Hoon Thien How and Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Ong Soon Hock in the next few weeks to strengthen their game.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 2:35 PM. Filed under Latest News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0