PROTON MALAYSIA OPEN Preview - Malaysians take on World-class Field

Sunday, 17 January 2010 17:21

Treading on the heels of the Korea Open, the second Super Series event will start off in Kuala Lumpur just as enthusiastically as ever. The reported withdrawal of Indonesia’s top players will be good news to lower ranked players as it makes things easier for them to get through. Meanwhile, the names of Chinese on the list are sure to make this year’s Malaysia Open even juicier than last year where they were absent.

By EeLyn Ooi, Badzine Correspondent. Photos: BadmintonPhoto

In the men’s singles draw, defending champion Lee Chong Wei will have to work harder if he hopes to maintain his home ground title as Lin Dan, who was absent last year, will be awaiting him menacingly in the finals this time. Lee will face a relatively exciting journey sharing the top half of the draw with Korea’s top Park Sung Hwan, Chen Jin, Bao Chunlai and the upcoming Jan O Jorgensen (pictured below). Jan will have to go through the solo Indonesian Taufik Hidayat in the first round as he looks forward to win his next Chinese while he meets Bao Chunlai in the quarter-finals.

The withdrawal of Indonesia’s top singles Sony Dwi Kuncoro and Simon Santoso, reported this week in Malaysian daily The Star, involves two seeded players who both happened to be in the bottom half of the draw. This could be good news to Andrew Smith of England and Dicky Palyama of the Netherlands respectively, as it would pit each against a promoted qualifier. However, this half is still likely to end up in the hands of Lin Dan and Peter Gade who are expecting to see each other in the semi-finals.

Although all four Wangs are present in the women’s singles draw this time, the newly crowned Korea Open champion Wang Shixian will have to face a tough match as early as the second round against Wang Yihan, who is seeded #1. The winner between the two Wangs will most probably take on the winner of the Jiang Yanjiao-Yao Jie match-up in the quarter-finals. Placed in the top half of the draw, Malaysia’s local sweetheart Wong Mew Choo (pictured top), unseeded this time, will have to play hard and smart to earn a ticket to the semi-finals, tediously with Lu Lan and Zhou Mi or possibly Thai veteran Salakjit Ponsana in her way.

There will be an early replay of last year’s semi-final match as 3rd seeded Tine Rasmussen meets Wang Chen in the first round. If history repeats itself, Tine will take on Wang Xin in round two and the winner of this match will have to outflank Indian youngster Saina Nehwal before stepping onto the grounds of the semi-finals. While Wang Lin seems set to dominate the bottommost quarter, Bae Seung Hee, who did well at home last week, could stop her as she halted Wang Xin in Seoul. Then, whoever wins will be able to proceed rather relaxingly into the semi-finals.

The projected absence of Olympic champions Markis Kido / Hendra Setiawan spells an easy way for 1st seeded Koo Kien Keat / Tan Boon Heong (pictured below) to show their faces in the finals. That is, however, if the winners between Chen Hung Ling/Lin Yu Lang of Chinese Taipei and Chai Biao / Zhang Nan don’t cause trouble for the Malaysians. However, Candra Wijaya playing for Singapore with Hendri Kurniawan Saputra could be able to give Chai/Zhang a good twist-over.

In the bottom half of the men’s doubles draw, the competition is still tough enough to topple even the heaviest pairs. Among the four Malaysian pairs in this half of the draw, Lee Wan Wah / Choong Tan Fook are most likely to proceed into the quarter-finals to meet fourth seeded Alvent Yulianto Chandra / Hendra Aprida Gunawan, though their dreams of having an easy time could be destroyed by Mohd Fairuzizuan Tazari / Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif.

Defending champions Lee/Jung may be in top form since the last season but they will still have to maintain their best performance to clinch their second title in two weeks. They will do battle with Guo Zhendong / Xu Chen in the second round and upon proceeding, play the winner of the Malaysian-Indonesian matchup before they possibly play for the title against Koo/Tan in the finals.

The draw of the women’s doubles shows a clear way for top seeds Ma Jin/Wang Xiaoli into the semi-finals, where they are due to meet Wong Pei Tty / Chin Eei Hui. The latter pair is expected to have no troubles against the three Chinese Taipei pairs and Thai Aroonkesorn/Voravichitchaikul in their quarter of their draw.

The bottom half of the women’s draw looks somewhat looser with Du Jing / Yu Yang (pictured below) dominating it, and looking as though they as the second seeds have the potential to outflank Ma/Wang in the finals. Shendy Puspa Irawati / Meiliana Jauhari have a good chance to squeeze through into the semi-finals as Vita Marissa, who triumphed over them in the same event last year has now traded former partner Liliyana Natsir for Mona Santoso.

In the mixed doubles, Lee Yong Dae / Lee Hyo Jung are looking forward to a good trouncing of Tao Jiaming / Zhang Yawen in the second round, to take revenge for their sudden defeat last week. Meanwhile, the also revengeful Anugritayawan/ Voravichitchaikul will aim to play better against Flandy Limpele / Cheng Wen Hsing this time, after losing their hopes for an appearance in the semi-finals last week. After taking on the winner of this matchup, the Koreans shall have their ticket to the finals coming in without much sweat.

Contradicting the field of the women’s doubles, the bottom half of the mixed draw is more peaceful yet tighter, even without the grudge matches that pepper the top half. Mateusiak/Kostiuczyk, who had been doing great in 2009, should have no problem proceeding into the quarter-finals, where they will take on Zheng Bo / Ma Jin. Nova Widianto / Liliyana Natsir, who are banking on keeping the Malaysian title to themselves, will make full preparations to defeat whoever their opponents may be, and play a final like the one they had last year.

To see the complete draws for the 2010 Proton Malaysia Open Super Series, CLICK HERE

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