Yonex German Open : Chunlai’s presence brings bad news
Posted by valsus on February 26, 2009
The presence of top seed Bao Chunlai in the German Open starting today in Mulheim could spoil the party for Malaysian shuttlers seeking ranking points to boost their chances of making it to the World Championships in India in August.
In the absence of most of the world’s top shuttlers, the focus this week will be on former Malaysian number one Wong Choong Hann and the four national back-up players – Chong Wei Feng, Liew Daren, Mohd Arif Abdul Latif and Tan Chun Seang.
But with world No. 12 Chunlai making a comeback after skipping the last three tournaments, it is going to be a tall order for Wei Feng, Daren and Arif.
Chunlai has a tougher draw in the All- England next month where he faces the prospect of playing Olympic champion Lin Dan in the second round and will surely be determined to seize the chance to nail his first title for the year in Mulheim before moving to Birmingham.
Wei Feng needs to reach the last eight to improve on his current world ranking at No. 52 but it will be difficult with a likely third round clash against the lanky Chunlai.
Wei Feng opens his campaign against German Marc Zwiebler and a win will probably give him a match against another home player, Bjoern Joppien.
Arif and Daren, ranked 65th and 82nd in the world respectively, are also in the same quarter as Chunlai.
Daren begins his campaign against Anand Pawar of India and he has in his path to the quarter-finals England’s Andrew Smith and India’s Arvind Bhat.
Daren was an entry for the All-England together with Wei Feng and Kuan Beng Hong but a full field in the Super Series tournament left him on the reserve list.
“I have given up hope of playing in the All- England. I will only concentrate on the German Open and I hope to make the best out of it as it is my only competition. I am not going for the Swiss Open after that. It will be great if I can secure my second quarter-finals appearance for the year,” said Daren in a telephone interview from Germany yesterday.
Daren was a surprise quarter-finalist in the season-opening Super Series tournament in Kuala Lumpur last month but failed to make it past the qualifying round in the Korean Open the following week.
Arif will be tested as early as the second round against ninth seed Bhat and an upset will see the Malaysian Thomas Cupper meeting Daren.
Chun Seang, ranked 80th in the world, is in the bottom half of the draw with third seed Choong Hann and second seed Chetan Anand of India.
But his inconsistency may make it difficult for him to get past the second round where he is likely to play against Dutch number one Dicky Palyama.
It is no easy task for Choong Hann to live up to his billing as he has to contend with India’s Anu Sridhar in the third round.
If he reaches the semi-finals, he could be up against unseeded Chinese juniors Wen Kai and Gong Weijie, who have the potential to beat top 10 ranked players in the world.
Choong Hann is currently ranked 14th and needs to stay among the top 24 to earn one of the three spots for the world championships.
Malaysian women’s singles player Julia Wong will be looking to do well on European soil but the odds are against her getting past the last eight as she will probably find world champion Zhu Lin of China standing in her way.
Lydia Cheah faces an early exit as she meets South Korean fourth seed Hwang Hye-youn in the first round.
