Koo Kien Keat – Tan Boon Heong find a tricky draw at All England Open Premier Super Series
Malaysia’s ace shuttlers Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong find a tricky draw as they are expected to face their nemesis Jung Jae Sung and Lee Yong Dae of Korea in the quarter-final of the All England Open Premier Super Series, which will take place at National
Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England.
Kien Keat and Boon Heong, who have occupied the sixth place in Men’s Doubles world rankings, have recently shown a considerable improvement in their skills when they shined at last week’s Thomas Cup Preliminary Round, which ended on Sunday, February 19,
in Macau.
The top seeds in Malaysia are passing through the worst bad patch in their professional career as they failed to win glory at any Super Series tournament for the last two year.
However, it seems that Kien Keat and Boon Heong are back on track as they have proved their worth in the qualifying round of Thomas Cup Finals and also emerged as the winners against Yoo Yeon Seong and Ko Sung Hyun in the Group-A match against South Korea.
In the Men’s Doubles opening round of All England Open, Kien Keat and Boon Heong will start their campaign against Naoki Kawamae and Shoji Sato of Japan.
On paper it will be tough match as the Japanese shuttlers have also shown great improvement in recent months.
If Kien Keat and Boon Heong pass the opening-round test against the Japanese pair, they will face China’s Hong Wei and Shen Ye in the Men’s Doubles second round of the tournament.
Kien Keat and Boon Heong are expected to win this battle as their Chinese opponents are not that experienced.
In the quarter-final, Kien Keat and Boon Heong will take on their nemesis and Korea’s best Men’s Doubles pair of Jung Jae Sung and Lee Yong Dae who have won 12 out of 14 previous fights against the Malaysian duo.
It will be a crunchy fight as Kien Keat and Boon Heong are in high spirits at the moment as they have delivered wonderful performance in the last week’s Preliminary Round indicating that they have buried the disappointment behind.
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