Hoon Thien How - Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif fail to deliver in second round of 2011 World Championships
Malaysia’s Men’s Doubles duo of Hoon Thien How and Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif failed to deliver a good performance as they lost to Taiwan’s Lee Sheng Mu and Fang Chieh Min in the Men’s Doubles second round of the 2011 World Championships, at the Wembley Arena
in London, on Tuesday, August 9.
World Number 25, Hoon Thien and Mohd Zakry played well but could not finish the game against the higher ranked Taiwan shuttlers, who clinched the match in straight-sets by playing top-class badminton.
Both pairs maintained the thrill from the starting points to the concluding phase of the opening set. The Malaysian duo remained ahead of their opponents in the whole set but lost their focus in the concluding points of the first game as the Taiwanese grabbed
the advantage and won the set by a tight score of 26-24.
The following set of this second-round battle was also interesting, as both sides remained toe-to-toe in the whole game. Again the Malaysian couple managed a lead in the concluding phase but could not finish the set, as their challengers played better badminton
in the end and won the second game with the margin of 21-19. Taiwan’s pair finished the straight-set fight with the score of 26-24 and 21-19.
After the match, a dejected Zakry said, “It was so close between us. In fact, we were leading in both the games but we just could not finish them off. This is disheartening.”
While talking about the concluding stages of the match, Zakry said, “We were quite nervous at that stage after our blunders at the net. The Taiwanese then caught us offguard with two flicked serves. It completely messed up the rhythm of our game.”
Hoon Thien also expressed his unhappiness over their loss in the second round by saying, “It’s disappointing to lose a close match but we tried our best. I have learnt that we cannot afford to make the slightest mistakes at this level.”
With the exit of Hoon Thien and Mohd Zakry, only Tan boon Heong and Koo Kien Keat are the Malaysian shuttlers left to fight for glory at the World Championships.
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