Wednesday October 28, 2009

Houwei stands in singles aces’ way to win first-ever title

STORIES by LOGANATH VELLOO
Pix by CHIN CHENG YEANG

CHINA’s Tian Houwei will be the main obstacle for Malaysia to win a first-ever boys’ singles title in the World Junior Badminton Championships.

In the draw released last night for the individual competitions beginning today at the Sultan Abdul Halim Indoor Stadium in Alor Setar, three of the four Malaysians – third-fourth seed Mohd Syawal Ismail , Mohd Misbun Ramdan and Zulfadli Zulkifli – were drawn in the same half as the top seeded Chinese.

En route to winning the Asian junior title in Kuala Lumpur in July, Houwei ended Malaysia’s hopes of victory by beating Zulfadli, Misbun Ramdan and Iskandar Zulkarnain.

Houwei is slated to meet Zulfadli in the third round in a quarter that has Misbun Ramdan. And Mohd Syawal could meet the Chinese in the semi-finals.

The second seeded Iskandar will not have it easy either in the bottom half of the draw. He opens against Australian Gobinathan Ashwant in the second round and then has Thailand’s top junior Pisit Poodchalat in his path in the next match.

If Iskandar reaches the semi-finals, he could face either Taiwan’s Hsu Jen-hao, the player who defeated him 21-13, 21-14 in the team semi-finals last Sunday, or China’s Li Yisheng.

In the boys’ doubles, Ow Yao Han-Chooi Kah Ming, the third-fourth seeds, should cruise through the early rounds in a half that has top seeds and Asian junior champions Angga Pratama-Rendy Sugiarto of Indonesia.

The second Malaysian pair, Goh Jian Hao-Pang Zheng Lin, will be lucky if they get far in the tournament. They have a tricky third-round match against top Thais and third-fourth seeds Cabales Tin-Nipitphon Phuangphuapet. In their quarter are Denmark’s Emil Holst-Niclas Nohr and second seeds Lu Kai-Liu Peixuan of China.

Malaysia’s top girls’ singles player Tee Jing Yi faces a potential banana skin the third round in Thailand’s Jindapol Nitchaon.

Jing Yi, the only Malaysian player to have not lost a match yet in Alor Setar, has had a string of defeats against lesser known Thais in recent tournaments, including the Asian Juniors.

Also in the 9th-16th seeded Malaysian’s half of the draw are German Lisa Heidenrich, Indonesians Anna Rovita and Febby Angguni and three China players – Xuan Deng, Di Suo and Xue Yao.

In last year’s championships in Pune, Malaysia bagged the boys’ doubles title through Mak Hee Chun-Teo Kok Siang.