Tan Boon Heong, Koo Kien Keat end title drought, win Men’s Doubles title – 2011 India Open GP Gold
Malaysia’s Tan Boon Heong and Koo Kien Keat ended their title drought after beating Alven Yulianto and Hendra Gunawan of Indonesia in the Men’s Doubles final of the 2011 Malaysia Open GP Gold in Malaysia on Sunday.
The Malaysian pair remained lucky in the final battle as Yulianto suffered with an injury, which made it easier for the top seeds to get hold of the situation in the final. In the opening game, the Indonesians put up a good show for a few minutes but the
Malaysians occupied the driving seat for the major part of the set.
“Although our opponents were not at their best, we are satisfied with our win. I think, Alven was suffering from an injury,” said Kien Keat.
The Malaysian shuttlers put up a good show in front of the home crowd by beating the Indonesians in a one-sided fight. Tan Boon and Koo Kien spent only 30 minutes in the court to brush aside Yulianto and Hendra without losing a single set. They won the match
by a 21-16, 21-7 margin without facing any considerable resistance.
Tan Boon and Koo Kien, who were the top seeds, desperately needed this title as they did not win any title for the last one year. The duo won the last title in the Malaysia Open Super Series in January 2010. For the last 13 months, the duo struggled to win
a title and failed to deliver their best against the top pairs of China, Indonesia, Denmark and Korea.
Koo Kien further added, “It feels good to finally win at home again. We still need to do a lot of work to improve our combination and we will work on it.”
He also expressed that this was a huge achievement as they had to wait for a long time to win a title in any major event. Since January 2010, the Malaysian duo trailed behind the top pairs from the leading badminton nations in all major events.
The performance of Tan Boon and Koo Kien will be tested in the Sudirman Cup, which will start from June 22, 2011 where all the top pairs of the world will be fighting to win glory for their respected countries.
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