Daren Liew is the last hope for Malaysia in Men’s Singles at the Badminton Asia Championships
Malaysia’s Daren Liew is the only hope for Malaysia in the Men’s Singles category as all other Malaysian players have lost their matches in the previous rounds of the Badminton Asia Championships 2011.
Daren tamed the 13th seed, Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong in the second round and will face China’s Du Pengyu in the round-of-16.
The World Number one, Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, is not participating in this event as he is focusing on the upcoming event of India Open Super Series, starting from 26 April in India. Being the only Malaysian left in the Men’s Singles draw, Daren has a
good opportunity to prove his worth. The Malaysian will be playing the quarter-final of Badminton Asia Championships for the first time if he manages to win against the World Number 12, Pengyu.
In the second round of the tournament, the other shuttlers of Malaysia including Goh Soon Huat and Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif failed to perform and lost their matches.
Goh Soon lost his match against the ruling world champion and Number five seed of the event, Chen Jin of China. Chen found no difficulty in beating the Malaysian in straight games. It was a completely one sided match where the experienced Chen proved that
he belongs to the highest class of the game. The young Goh Soon will have to work hard to reduce this gap for a better performance at the international level.
Arif Latif also met with the same fate by the hands of 11th seed Sho Sasaki of Japan in straight sets. Sasaki has recently won the Australian Open Grand Prix Gold 2011, in Melbourne. He is in good form and proved that he is capable of winning
the title in the current event as well. It was a thrilling fight where both shuttlers remained toe-to-toe until the end of both sets. Arif Latif lost to Sasaki with a narrow margin of 20-22 and 23-21.
Now Daren is the only shuttler who is expected to perform well against Pengyu who defeated Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai in the second round. The Men’s Singles round-of-16 will be played today at the indoor arena in Chengdu, China.
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