Coach wants Chong Wei to wipe smile off Chinese players’ faces

KUALA LUMPUR: China are grinning from ear to ear after receiving a favourable draw in the men’s singles event of the World Badminton Championships.

But national coach Tey Seu Bock is banking on Malaysia’s world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei and other top stars to wipe the smile off their faces when the action begins in Wembley from Aug 8-14.

He said that China are not only incredibly strong this year but have been quite lucky with the draw.

China are the only country to have four representatives in the men’s singles in Lin Dan, Chen Jin, Chen Long and Du Pengyu.

And the fact that all of them are seeded in the competition underlines their depth in strength in this year’s edition.

Three-time champion Lin Dan is the second seed, followed by Chen Long at No. 5, Chen Jin No. 6 and Pengyu No. 8.

Chen Long and Chen Jin are in the top half with top seed Chong Wei and former Olympic and world champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia.

Lin Dan and his younger compatriot Pengyu are in the lower half with a few seasoned campaigners, like Peter-Gade Christensen of Denmark, Lee Hyun-il of South Korea and Malaysia’s Wong Choong Hann.

Seu Bock said that China were fortunate that neither Chen Jin nor Chen Long were drawn in the same half as Lin Dan.

“Lin Dan is probably the luckiest one. He does not have to play either Chen Jin or Chen Long because these two players are going to work doubly hard to derail some of the good ones in the top half of the draw,” said Seu Bock.

“Chen Long and Chen Jin will surely go the distance to try and beat Chong Wei. And if they can’t, then they will at least try to stretch him and tire him out.”

Chong Wei is expected to face Chen Long in the quarter-finals and either Chen Jin or fourth seed Taufik in the semi-finals.

“Taufik has not been in good form. He has lost in two tournaments going into the world meet. I don’t think Taufik is going to go far this time,” said Seu Bock.

Taufik lost to Germany’s Marc Zwiebler in the third round of the US Open two weeks ago and the Canada Open final last week. Taufik did well at the last year’s world meet when he defeated Chong Wei in the quarter-finals in Paris.

Seu Bock expects Lin Dan, who has been drawn in the same quarter as Hyun-il, Pengyu and and Japan’s Sho Sasaki, to have a smooth ride into the quarter-finals.

Although China pose a big threat in the men’s singles, Seu Bock is hopeful that Chong Wei will prevail.

“We are expecting some tough and long matches for Chong Wei. We will prepare him to face such an ordeal. The men’s singles title is precious to China and they will do everything they can to retain it,” he said.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 11:53 AM. Filed under Latest News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0