TWO DOWN AND TEN TO GO FOR CHONG WEI
Lee Chong Wei enjoyed a new high at the Malaysian Open on Sunday 24th January in Kuala Lumpur. He won the event for the 6th time, scored his first back-to-back success in the Super Series and continued his reign as the top ranked player in the world. The absence of Lin Dan who, two weeks earlier had also skipped the Korean Open, did little to taint that triple accolade.
Visibly disappointed at the absence of Lin Dan in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian expressed
“the whole world is waiting for my next battle with Lin Dan. Hopefully it materializes at the All England.” The English leg is the next in the Super Series, from 9th March.
One can probably understand Chong Wei’s disappointment at the Chinese ace’s withdrawal from the two opening legs. After closing off 2009 with the Masters Title, Chong Wei looks to have hit his best form coming into the new year. He has been quite irresistible in Seoul and Kuala Lumpur.
Though the Korean Open did not feature all of the top players of the world, yet the consensus is that their presence would not have made much of a difference considering the manner in which the Malaysian dominated it.
Indonesian Singles players who had skipped the Korean Open also decided to opt out of the KL leg. But in the absence of Sony Dwi Kuncoro and Simon Santoso, the Chinese camp came in full strength, minus Lin Dan of course. And as the luck of the Draw should have it, Chong Wei was not spared from running into them on his way to the title. In fact he met two of them. Both their matches were interestingly poised before the Malaysian stamped his authority.
Du Pengyu won the closely fought first game 23-21 but gradually crumbled under the awesome power and craft of Chong Wei and surrendered 17-21, 14-21.
In the next round, Chen Jin found a fully recovered Chong Wei after his energy-sapping encounter with Pengyu take to the court. Hopes of an upset fizzled out when the Malaysian recovered from a second game loss to overwhelm the Chinese 21-14 in the rubber. Boa Chunlai the third Chinese sent to ‘test’ Chong Wei, in the meantime had retired hurt in the early stages of the tournament.
From then on, the path to the Malaysian’s second consecutive Super Series title was peppered with two lower-ranked yet potentially dangerous players – Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam and Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand. But Chong Wei was not to be deprived of his singular desire to impress his home audience. The Vietnamese youngster was effective in the first game when he took Chong Wei to the wire before losing 20-22. The challenge ended there when the Malaysian shifted gear in the second and eased to a 21-11 win.
In the Final, Boonsak was a beaten man from the offset and could only offer token resistance as Chong Wei wrapped up the match in double quick time, 21-13, 21-7.
Now