Mew Choo crashes out yet again

KUALA LUMPUR: Wong Mew Choo’s (pic) misery in international tournaments continued when she crashed out in the first round of the Hong Kong Open yesterday.

The Malaysian number one went down 15-21, 11-21 to world champion Zhu Lin of China.

With the defeat, Mew Choo can forget about competing in the Super Series Masters Finals in Kota Kinabalu from Dec 18-21.

She now tied in 10th spot with Xu Huaiwen of Germany in the Series standing. Only the top eight players after the 12th leg and final leg of the Series in Hong Kong qualify for the Finals.

Julia Wong, Malaysian’s other competitor in the women’s singles, made it to the second round with a 21-16, 21-18 win over Ai Goto of Japan and she will take on second seed Zhou Mi of Hong Kong.

It will all quiet for Malaysia in the second round of the men’s singles event today. None made it past the opening round yesterday.

Malaysia’s best bet and top seed Lee Chong Wei withdrew from the tournament because of a knee injury while two others — Wong Choong Hann and Chong Wei Feng — crashed out 21-12, 10-21, 15-21 to South Korean Hong Ji-hoon and 9-21. 15-21 to Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia respectively.

Malaysia, however, showed that they are on track to challenge for honours in the men’s doubles when seven pairs, led by Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong marched into the second round. Kien Keat-Boon Heong should get past Englishmen Chris Adcock-Robert Blair today.

The others who advanced were Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah, Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari, Lim Khim Wah-Chan Peng Soon, Mohd Razif Abdul Latif-Tan Wee Kiong, Ong Soon Hock-Hoon Thien How and Chan Chong Ming-Chew Choon Eng.

Tan Fook-Wan Wah are expected to face the toughest test against top seeds and Olympic champions Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia while Zakry-Fairuzizuan will take on younger compatriots Khim Wah-Peng Soon.

South Koreans Cho Gun-woo-Yoo Yeon-seong and Jung Jae-sung-Lee Yong-dae stand in the way of Razif-Wee Kiong and Thien How-Soon Hock respectively in second-round matches today.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 1:52 PM. Filed under News, Wong Mew Choo . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0