Tough for Koo-Tan in All-England after tame loss in Germany
Latest News 2:01 PM
PETALING JAYA: The writing is on the wall for Malaysia’s Koo Kien
Keat-Tan Boon Heong in the All-England, which begins on Wednesday in
Birmingham.
This is based on their toothless performance at the
German Open in Mulheim last Saturday in which they lost tamely at 9-21,
11-21 to top seeds Jung Jae-sung-Lee Yong-dae.
Kien Keat-Boon Heong appeared to be a class below in the 27-minute semi-final match against the fitter Koreans.
It was their second defeat by Jae-sung-Yong-dae this year.
They also lost in the semi-finals of the South Korea Open in January but gave a better fight in that match.
It
was obvious that Kien Keat’s physical condition was not at the best
while Boon Heong was finding it hard to do the smashing all by himself.
Without
sting in their attacking forte, the duo are unlikely to make a quick
rebound in Birmingham where they willl attempt to win the All-England
title for the second time after 2007.
The Badminton Association
of Malaysia’s (BAM) high performance director, Datuk James Selvaraj, was
not too pleased with the overall performance of Kien Keat-Boon Heong
thus far this year.
“They are only going downhill while pairs
from South Korea (Yong-dae-Jae-sung), China (Cai Yun-Hai Feng) and
Indonesia (Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan) are getting more solid in all
areas of their game,” said James.
“We will have to look again
into their fitness condition. How focused are they in their game? I find
that their minds are somewhere else. Together with their coach, Rexy
Mainaky, we will look into ways to improve all these and turn them into
players with quality strokes in their game.”
Kien Keat-Boon Heong
will take on qualifiers in the opening round on Wednesday. In their
same quarter are Taiwanese Chen Hung-ling-Lin Yu-lang and the formidable
Markis-Hendra.
If they make it, they can expect to play against
either second seeds Ko Sung-hyun-Yoo Yeon-seong of South Korea or Cai
Yun-Haifeng in the semis.
In the other half of the draw are top
seeds Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen of Denmark, Jae-sung-Yong-dae and
three other Malaysian pairs, Gan Teik Chai-Tan Bin Shen, Mak Hee
Chun-Tan Wee Kiong and Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Ong Soon Hock.
Posted by Lucas Liau
on 2:01 PM.
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