MALAYSIA OPEN 2008 QF: The Excitement Continues

Still Chance of a Double in Singles

In the men’s singles department, however, there was joy in the Malaysian camp as their favourite and top seed Lee Chong Wei (pictured) advanced to the semis with his defeat of Simon Santoso of Indonesia 21-13, 21-13.

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“This was by far my easiest win over Simon. He was not playing well today and I managed to get the upper hand in the match. Personally I think I played much better today compared to the other days. And I hope I can do well again tomorrow against Chen Yu of China,” said Chong Wei.

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The unexpected result was Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark winning over Bao Chunlai of China 21-14 21-19. Kenneth managed to control the tempo of the game.

“I’m very happy for the win. This is my best match ever against Bao,” said Kenneth. In fact the Malaysian crowd was supporting Kenneth all the way during that match.

The women's singles continues to get interesting. Wong Mew Choo struggled against Eriko Hirose of Japan, dropping the first game and blowing 6 game points in the second before snatching a 3-game victory in exactly one hour. Her win sets up a semi-final repeat of last year's final against Zhu Lin. Tine Rasmussen, meanwhile, won her rematch against Lu Lan of China, though it took her nearly twice as long as it did in Japan.

Despite a heartbreaking loss by Shon Seung-mo, the Korean bench has something to smile about as four Lees have advanced to the semi-finals. Especially pleasing was the victory of mixed doubles pair Lee Yong Dae and Lee Hyo Jung over world number two Lilyana Natsir and Nova Widianto.

2004 Olympic silver-medallist Shon is now ranked a lowly 90th in the world. He let slip 3 game point opportunities in the first game before finally losing in three games to Chen Yu. Lee Hyun- Il will be carrying the Korean flag into the semis.

It was a contrasting day for Malaysian Badminton as two of their men’s doubles pairs fell today in the quarter-finals. Lee Chong Wei and Wong Mew Choo kept local hopes alive in the singles events where China, surprisingly, is down to one player in each draw.

Comeback pair Chan Chong Ming and Chew Choon Eng’s fairytale run ended when they faced Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun of China and lost 21-13, 21-12.

“We never expected to get this far, to the quarterfinals. At the same time we know that we can still perform at this level. We hope that we can get more ranking points in the future tournaments. The crowd in the stadium was supporting us all the way. It was thanks to them that we made it at least to the quarter-finals,” quipped Chong Ming.

“Winning and losing is part of the game, we managed to control the tempo of the match and we are happy that the result favors us. I’m glad to also see Chong Ming and partner are back in action,” added Cai Yun.

The fans were not as happy about Lee Wan Wah and Choong Tan Fook’s performance, however. The fifth-seeded veterans lost badly to Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen of Denmark (pictured) 21-16 ,16-21, 21-6. The Danes were ecstatic about their win here.

“We have a boost of confidence after beating Koo and Tan yesterday and we played our usual game today. We managed to read the Malaysian pair’s game today. Although we lost in the second game, we were able to win it big in the 3rd game,” said Paaske.

Lee Wan Wah admitted “We were disappointed with our performance today. Personally I think my fitness is not back yet since I only trained for 2 weeks after I had my knee rehabilitated. The Danes played their game well and kept us from playing our game. They were faster today and managed to retrieve all the shots that we gave to them.”