Malaysian shuttlers make strong bids for Thomas Cup and London Olympics qualification
The male and female shuttlers of Malaysia raised the chances of securing their spots in Thomas Cup and London Olympics by making strong bids in Australian Open GP Gold on April 4, 2012.
The prestigious team event, Thomas Cup is going to be staged in Wuhan, China from May 20-27 and Malaysia has already announced their Men’s Singles squad.
The famous Singles shuttlers, Arif Abdul Latif, Wei Feng Chong and Kwong Beng Chan were racing for the last spot in the squad but dramatically Kwong Beng was the only survivor in Australian Open and raised his chances for the last spot in the national squad.
Meanwhile, the Women Doubles pairs of Malaysia Chin Eei h*i-Wong Pei Tty and Vivian Hoo-Khe Wei were looking to pocket some valuable ranking points as they are roped in Olympics qualification tussle.
World Number 15 duo Eei h*i-Pei Tty clinched crucial ranking points by marching into the second round of Australian Open along with their compatriots Khe Wei-Vivian Hoo who are currently placed 19 in world rankings.
In the Men’s Singles event, Kwong Beng managed to grab the attentions by winning against top Indian shuttler Parupalli Kashyap while all his compatriots Daren Liew, Arif Latif and Wei Feng failed to rise to the occasion.
World Number 79 shuttler was on cloud nine after claiming this “timely” victory as he is looking to win a seat in the national team at the Thomas Cup Finals.
Kwong Beng said, “I played a good game today and that’s important to me like everyone else. I want to win a slot in the team event too. I have yet to show any good results and I hope that I can continue to do well.”
Meanwhile, the female pairs of Malaysia Eei h*i-Pei Tty and Khe Wei-Vivian, who are looking to be in the top 16 teams before the Olympic qualification periods ends, won their opening matches of the event.
Top Malaysian pair Eei h*i-Pei Tty was up against the scratch pair Bao Yixin-Deng Yuting of China and they relished the opportunity to earn some valuable ranking points.
The seasoned member of the duo Eei h*i said, “This Chinese pair is still new and young. Their defence was not potent and we took our chances by playing a more aggressive game.”
Now the twosome of Eei h*i-Pei Tty will test their chemistry against the Indonesian pair Suci Rizky-Della Destiara while the other Malaysian couple Khe Wei-Vivian is up against the Japanese pair Misaki Matsutomo-Ayaka Takahashi.
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