Zakry and Thien How crash out to Taiwanese in second round
Top News 3:02 PM
WORLD BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS
WEMBLEY (AUG 8-14)
WEMBLEY (AUG 8-14)
STOCKY doubles shuttlers Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Hoon Thien How walked out of the court at the Wembley Arena with their tails between their legs yesterday.
Easy pickings: Taiwan’s Fang Chieh-min returning the shuttle to Malaysia’s Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif and Hoon Thien How in the men’s doubles second round match Tuesday. Chieh-min and Lee Sheng-mu won 26-24, 21-19.
The duo’s campaign in the World Badminton Championships came to a grinding halt after they suffered a painful 24-26, 19-21 defeat to 10th seeds Fang Chieh-min-Lee Sheng-mu of Taiwan in the second round.
And their excuse was: poor finishing and sloppy service.
Just a day earlier they had knocked out former world champions Tony Gunawan-Howard Bach of the United States in the opening round.
Zakry was disheartened with the manner they lost.
“It was so close between us. In fact, we were leading in both the games but we just could not finish them off. This is disheartening,” lamented Zakry.
Zakry-Thien How were involved in a close fight with the Taiwanese from the start but managed to take a 20-18 lead in the opening game.
Instead of pressing home, they allowed Chieh-min-Sheng-mu to get back into the game. And the Taiwanese grabbed the lifeline and went on to win it 26-24.
The match took a similar pattern in the second game, with the Malaysians looking good to force a decider after taking a 19-16 lead.
Then, Zakry sent the shuttle into the net. And Thien How followed suit.
“We were quite nervous at that stage after our blunders at the net. The Taiwanese then caught us offguard with two flicked serves. It completely messed up the rhythm of our game,” said Zakry.
“Both pairs are of equal standard but they took their chances well.”
Zakry-Thien How had beaten the Taiwanese pair en route to reaching the quarter-finals of the All-England in March.
Debutant Thien How said: “It’s disappointing to lose a close match but we tried our best. I have learnt that we cannot afford to make the slightest mistakes at this level.”
With the defeat of Zakry-Thien How, Malaysia are now left with only fourth seeds Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong to challenge for honours in the men’s doubles event.
Chan Peng Soon-Lim Khim Wah had crashed out to Poland’s Adam Cwalina-Michal Logosz 13-21, 19-21 in the first round on Monday.
Posted by Lucas Liau
on 3:02 PM.
Filed under
