Li Mao’s the best vitamin for Hyun-il
Posted by valsus on May 8, 2010
EE Hyun-il treats China-born coach Li Mao like his father and that is why he did not even give it a second thought when asked to make a return to national duty.
And his return has definitely made their rivals cast a wary eye over South Korea in the Thomas Cup Finals starting tomorrow.
South Korea were runners-up in Jakarta two years ago, losing 1-3 to China in the final.
The 2006 Asian Games silver medallist and former world No. 1 decided to make a return to the national team after staying out of international tournaments for more than a year.Hyun-il last played at the Beijing Olympics, losing to Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei in the semi-finals and to Chen Jin of China in the bronze medal playoff.
Li Mao, who was formerly the singles coach for Malaysia, said it was him who had asked Hyun-il, who had beaten all the current top ranked players before, to make a comeback to the national team.
“He has not been playing outside the country but still keeps in good shape by representing the private sector in local competitions,” said Li Mao.
“His form is okay so I asked him to return for the Thomas Cup campaign.
“If Hyun-il had not stopped playing after the Olympics, he would have stayed inside the top four in the world.
“He respects me as I had trained him for a long time before I went to Malaysia. I continued training him when I returned to South Korea.”
Hyun-il had been in training camp with the Korean squad for the past two weeks and Li Mao said his return was good for their national No. 1 Park Sung-hwan.
“His experience makes him a good sparring partner for Sung-hwan,” said the coach.
South Korea are in Group A with title holders China and Australia.
A strong singles line up comprising Hyun-il and Sung-hwan and reliable doubles pairings make South Korea a real threat in the last eight, where they could run into any of the top four seeds.
Despite the absence of their doubles star Lee Yong-dae, the Koreans are capable of fielding scratch combinations capable of delivering the points.
