A stroll for Chong Wei, but a struggle for Choong Hann

LEE Chong Wei cruised into the third round but Wong Choong Hann almost joined South Korean Park Sung-hwan on the men’s singles casualty list yesterday.

Top seed Chong Wei had a stroll in the park and took 22 minutes to beat Nigerian Ola Fagbemi 21-14, 21-11.

He will take on Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh today and national coach Misbun Sidek hopes to see his charge get past the third-round barrier. At the last World Championships two years ago, Chong Wei failed to live up to his billing and was eliminated by Indonesian Sony Dwi Kuncoro.

“It will be an important match for Chong Wei. He knows what happened two years ago and I am sure he will not want to repeat it,” said Misbun.

“The match should favour Chong Wei. For now, he is stable and handling himself very well even though the focus and attention have been tremendous on him.

“This Vietnamese is no pushover. He will fight for every shot and it will be the first real test for Chong Wei.”

And on the overall performances of the shuttlers in the competition, Misbun said that several players, among them Peter-Gade Christensen of Denmark, China’s Lin Dan and Sony, had changed some of the techniques in their game.

“They have a different approach and have added more variety in their shots. They have certainly moved one step better in the way they are playing here. We have to be on a look out for these players,” he added.

While Chong Wei breezed into the third round, veteran Choong Hann was caught off guard by a fiery Raul Must of Estonia but fortunately his experience saw him through with a 21-12, 7-21, 21-16 win in 55 minutes.

“I have played against him before but this was certainly the toughest. After the easy win in the first game, I took him lightly,” said Choong Hann.

“But he was on form in the second game. His net play was top class and it made me quite nervous. He kept the pressure in the rubber too. For­tu­nately, I survived the critical situation.”

Choong Hann added that the tough match had warmed him up for the match against China’s Chen Jin today.

“I have lost to him twice at the Malaysian Open (2007) and the ABC (Asian Championships last year). I hope I have saved my best to play against him tomorrow,” he said.

Unlike Choong Hann, eighth seed Sung-hwan was unable to save himself, going down to a 16-21, 21-17, 15-21 defeat by Denmark’s Jan O. Jorgensen.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 9:59 AM. Filed under Lee Chong Wei, News, Wong Chong Hann . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0