Markis-Hendra’s absence is music to Fairuzizuan-Zakry’s ears

KUALA LUMPUR: Top seeds Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia will not be defending the men’s doubles title at the World Championships due to the former’s health problems.

And that is good news for Malaysia’s fourth seeds Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif, who are in the same half as the 2008 Beijing Olympic champions.

According to Kompas website, the stocky Markis has high blood pressure and had even fainted once during physical training.

Following advice from coach Sigit Pamungkas, Markis has now been ruled out from the world meet, which will begin in Hyderabad, India, on Monday.

On Wednesday, it was also confirmed that the All-Indonesia Badminton Association (PBSI) had notified the Badminton World Federation (BWF) of Markis-Hendra’s withdrawal.

This is not the first time that Markis has faced such a setback. He was laid low by a knee injury and even took time off from training following the death of his father early this year.

National doubles coach Rexy Mainaky said he knew about Markis’ health condition earlier and hoped that Fairuzizuan-Zakry would make full use of this opportunity to justify their seeding.

“The absence of Markis-Hendra should make life much easier for the players in the top half of the draw. Fairuzizuan and Zakry should grab this opportunity,” said Rexy.

According to BWF media and communications manager S. Selvam, there will not be a re-draw or promotion of players from the reserve list to replace Markis-Hendra.

Earlier Fairuzizuan-Zakry had been expected to meet Markis-Hendra in the quarter-finals. But now, they will have to be wary of two seeded pairs – 11th seeds Yonathan Suryatama Dasuki-Rian Sukmawan of Indonesia and 14th seeds Kenichi Hayakawa-Kenta Kazuno.

There are also three unseeded, but equally dangerous, pairs – Hu Chung-shien-Tsai Chia-hsin of Taiwan, South Koreans Cho Gun-woo-Yoo Yeon-seong and China’s Chai Biao-Liu Xiaolong – who can be spoilers in the Malaysians’ bid to make the top four.

Said Zakry: “We are certainly in a better position now.

“Still, we cannot take it easy at all in our quarter.”

“The other Indonesian pair of Yonathan-Rian are no pushovers. They have made life difficult for us in the past. Fairuzizuan and I will tread with caution.”

The Malaysians, who went down in their opening match at the previous world meet in Kuala Lumpur in 2007, are expected to take on Yonathan-Rian in the third round.

Second seeds Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong are in the same half as two other Malaysians Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah, Chan Chong Ming-Chew Choon Eng as well as South Koreans Jung Jae-sung-Lee Yong-dae and Mathias Boe-Carsten Morgensen of Denmark.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 11:50 AM. Filed under Fairuzizuan, News, Zakry . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0