Lee Chong Wei advances while back-up shuttlers fail to deliver in the Malaysia Open GP Gold 2011
Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei advanced to the second round of Malaysia Open GP Gold 2011, whereas the back-up shuttlers of Malaysia failed to deliver and crashed out in the first round, played at Alor Setar, Malaysia on Wednesday, May 4.
Along with the top seed, Chong Wei, some other senior shuttlers have managed to enter into the Round-of-16. Among these survivors are, Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, Liew Daren and Beryno Wong. In the previous rounds of the event, 22 Malaysians have lost their respective matches.
However, the local hero, Chong Wei moved into the pre-quarterfinal without facing any trouble in his two matches. In the Men’s Singles first round of the event, the top seed defeated Robin Gonansa of Singapore in straight sets. In the second round, the World Number 1 thrashed Takuma Ueda of Japan in a similar fashion. In the pre-quarterfinal, Chong Wei will be up against Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia.
The top seed is aware of the importance of this event as Malaysia Open GP Gold is the first event which will give ranking points for the 2012 London Olympics.
“I was playing cautiously because of the hard surface here. I did not want to risk injury,” Chong Wei said.
He further added, “But this is the first tournament that offers Olympic ranking points and it is important. I will continue to do well and try to win the title for a third time.”
The winner of the India Open Super Series said that the youngsters need to work hard to perform well against the top class players.
“Our youngsters had a tough time because the field was quite competitive. But I wished that some of the youngsters had taken the opportunity to prove themselves,” he further added.
Chong Wei is expected to have a semi-final clash with the ruling World Champion, Chen Jin of China, who defeated the Malaysian back-up shuttler, Mohd Arif Abdul Latif, in the second round of the event. Chen will be up against Sho Sasaki of Japan, who won the Men’s Singles title in last month’s Australia Open GP Gold 2011.
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