Taufik Hidayat's withdrawal will not dent the shine of Malaysia Open GP Gold - Badminton News
Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat and Simon Santoso have withdrawn from the upcoming event of Malaysia Open GP Gold 2011, which is set to begin in Malaysia, from Wednesday, May 4.
However, the withdrawal of these shuttlers will not dent the shine of the event as the local hero and World Number one, Lee Chong Wei, will feature in the tournament.
Indonesia’s Team Manager confirmed the withdrawal of these two Indonesian shuttlers at a meeting. Young Malaysian shuttler, Zulfadli Zulkifli will now be up against senior team-mate Liew Daren, in the opening round of the event.
In the absence of Lin Dan of China and Denmark's Peter Hoeg Gade, Chong Wei has a wonderful chance to continue his winning streak by clinching this home title. He has already grabbed four major titles this year, including the Super Series Masters Finals,
Malaysia Open Super Series, All England Open Premier Super Series and the India Open Super Series.
The World Number one has reached the finals of all events of the proceeding year and lost only one to Lin Dan, in the Korea Open Premier Super Series. If Chong Wei manages to reach the final of the Malaysia Open GP Gold, it would be his sixth final in row.
Chong Wei is placed at the top of the upper-half of Men’s Singles draw. In the same half will be China’s Chen Jin, who is the current World Champion. Other contenders in the way of Chong Wei will be Korea’s Park Sung Hwan and Japan’s Sho Sasaki.
In the lower-half of the draw, the major contenders for the Men’s Singles title will be China’s Bao Chunlai, Sony Dwi Kuncoro from Indonesia, Japan’s Kazushi Yamada and Korean, Lee Hyun-il.
Along with Chong Wei, many other Malaysian shuttlers will also try to perform well in this event. Malaysian players to play in the tournament include Chong Wei Feng, Liew Daren, Mohd Arif Abdul Latif, Misbun Ramdan Misbun, Chan Kwong Beng, Tan Chun Seang,
Goh Soon Huat, Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin and Lim Fang Yang.
All these youngsters are the back-up shuttlers of Malaysia in the Men’s Singles category and the players are sure to learn a lot when they face world class shuttlers in the event.
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