Tough for Koo-Tan in All-England after tame loss in Germany

PETALING JAYA: The writing is on the wall for Malaysia’s Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong in the All-England, which begins on Wednesday in Birmingham.
This is based on their toothless performance at the German Open in Mulheim last Saturday in which they lost tamely at 9-21, 11-21 to top seeds Jung Jae-sung-Lee Yong-dae.
Kien Keat-Boon Heong appeared to be a class below in the 27-minute semi-final match against the fitter Koreans.
It was their second defeat by Jae-sung-Yong-dae this year.
They also lost in the semi-finals of the South Korea Open in January but gave a better fight in that match.
It was obvious that Kien Keat’s physical condition was not at the best while Boon Heong was finding it hard to do the smashing all by himself.
Without sting in their attacking forte, the duo are unlikely to make a quick rebound in Birmingham where they willl attempt to win the All-England title for the second time after 2007.
The Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) high performance director, Datuk James Selvaraj, was not too pleased with the overall performance of Kien Keat-Boon Heong thus far this year.
“They are only going downhill while pairs from South Korea (Yong-dae-Jae-sung), China (Cai Yun-Hai Feng) and Indonesia (Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan) are getting more solid in all areas of their game,” said James.
“We will have to look again into their fitness condition. How focused are they in their game? I find that their minds are somewhere else. Together with their coach, Rexy Mainaky, we will look into ways to improve all these and turn them into players with quality strokes in their game.”
Kien Keat-Boon Heong will take on qualifiers in the opening round on Wednesday. In their same quarter are Taiwanese Chen Hung-ling-Lin Yu-lang and the formidable Markis-Hendra.
If they make it, they can expect to play against either second seeds Ko Sung-hyun-Yoo Yeon-seong of South Korea or Cai Yun-Haifeng in the semis.
In the other half of the draw are top seeds Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen of Denmark, Jae-sung-Yong-dae and three other Malaysian pairs, Gan Teik Chai-Tan Bin Shen, Mak Hee Chun-Tan Wee Kiong and Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Ong Soon Hock.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 2:01 PM. Filed under Latest News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0