Chong Wei out to maintain grip in Super Series events
Top News 4:19 PM
KUALA LUMPUR: The India Open does not offer ranking points for the world championships in August or the Olympic Games next year.
But the Super Series event, which begins today in New Delhi, still holds significant importance for Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei and the men’s pair of Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong as their pride is at stake.
World No. 1 Chong Wei is determined to show that he is king of the Super Series events and in the absence of Lin Dan of China, the men’s singles title, at least on paper, should be easy picking.
Chong Wei however, had been left red-faced in India twice and he will want to avoid a similar situation.
Due to food poisoning, he was sent packing by Chen Long of China in the opening round of the India Open in 2009 and months later, he went down to Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia in the quarter-finals of the world championships in Hyderabad.
Coach Teh Seu Bock, however, did not want to pile unnecessary pressure on Chong Wei.
First hurdle: Lee Chong Wei will open his campaign against India’s Ajay Jayaram today.
“Lin Dan may not be around but we cannot assume that it will be easy for Chong Wei to win. It is a challenge to keep on winning,” he said.
Chong Wei has reached four finals this year. Except for the South Korea Open, he won in three others – Super Series Masters Finals, Malaysia Open and the All-England.
“Another win will certainly be a good boost ahead of the world championships in London (in August). But at the same time, I do not want him to peak too early,” said Seu Bock.
Chong Wei is expected to stroll pass Ajay Jayaram of India today to set up a probable match against Korean veteran Lee Hyun-il in a quarter of the draw which has Sony and Japan’s Kenichi Tago. Malaysia also have Liew Daren in the fray.
Tan Chun Seang failed to come through from the qualifying tournament when he crashed out 12-21, 22-20, 12-21 to unheralded Sourabh Verma of India yesterday.
Earlier, in the first round, he defeated T. Nagendra 21-9, 21-11.
In the absence of all the top pairs from China, Denmark, South Korea and Indonesia in the men’s doubles, top seeds Kien Keat-Boon Heong have a golden opportunity to win a first Super Series title this year.
They have been bumping onto the wall in Super Series events since winning at the Malaysia Open in January last year.
It will be a big blow to their morale if they cannot end their title drought in the absence of Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng, Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen, Jung Jae-sung-Lee Yong-dae and Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan.
Kien Keat-Boon Heong are drawn in a half, which has fifth seeds Cho Gun-woo-Kwon Yi-goo of South Korea and fourth seeds Hirokatsu Hashimoto-Noriyasu Hirata of Japan.
The other half has second seeded Indonesians Mohd Ahsan-Bona Septano and their compatriots Alven Yulianto-Hendra Gunawan; Malaysians Chan Peng Soon-Tan Wee Kiong and Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Hoon Thien How and Japanese Naoki Kawamae-Shoji Sato.
Kien Keat-Boon Heong will not see action today as they drew a first-round bye while Zakry-Thien How and Peng Soon-Wee Kiong have matches against Indian opponents – Utsav Mishra-Ravinder Singh and S. Sanjeeth-Jagadish Yadav respectively.
Meanwhile, the BWF’s event director, M. Venugopal, said that the world championships qualifying period would end on Thursday and ranking points earned at the India Open would not be included.
He added that the points would also not be taken into account for Olympic qualification as the tournament did not fall within the one-year period from May 2-April 29.
Posted by Lucas Liau
on 4:19 PM.
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