Thomas Cup Preliminary Round: Muhammad Hafiz Hashim and Daren Liew expected to represent Malaysia
Malaysia’s national player, Daren Liew, and independent shuttler, Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, are expected to represent Malaysia at the Thomas Cup Preliminary Round, which will take place in Macau from February 14-19, 2012.
However, the final decision will be taken after reviewing their performances in the upcoming events of Korea Open Premier Super Series 2012 and Malaysia Open Super Series 2012. If they perform well in these tournaments, they will represent Malaysia in the
qualifying round of the prestigious team event.
Since the inception of Thomas Cup in 1984, Malaysia always qualified for the finals. However, this time it seems a bit tricky because besides the Men’s Singles World Number One player, Lee Chong Wei, there is no other shuttler who showed consistency at international
stage in the whole current year.
However, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) is looking forward to field its most promising shuttlers to perform well in the qualifying round and find a better place in the Thomas Cup Finals, which will take place in Wuhan, China, in May, 2012.
Ng Chin Chai, the secretary of BAM, said that Chong Wei will lead the Malaysian squad in the tournament and the best players will be selected to compete for this challenging contest as all top shuttlers of leading countries will be there.
He said, “It is going to be a tough qualifying event as we will be challenged by Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and Thailand for four spots. The inclusion of China has made it more difficult as this will affect the seeding.”
He further added, “Although the Olympics is our priority next year, the Thomas Cup is also an important tournament for us and we must qualify for the final rounds. We have to go to Macau with our best squad.”
Hafiz Hashim is expected to become a part of Men’s Singles national team in the Thomas Cup qualifying round. He will join forces with the top seed, Chong Wei and the back-up shuttler, Daren, in the singles squad.
However, the positioning in the team event matches depends on the results of Hafiz Hashim and Daren in the upcoming tournaments.
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