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Wednesday September 16, 2009

Tan Fook-Wan Wah’s hopes rise in China Masters

By RAJES PAUL

PETALING JAYA: The benefit of a one-week training stint in China and the absence of doubles specialist Lee Yong-dae of South Korea have raised the hopes of veterans Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah in the China Masters, which begins today in Changzhou.

But it will certainly not be a walk in the park for them.

Lee Yong-dae

In the absence of the top combinations from the national team, Malaysia will bank on Wan Wah-Tan Fook and two other former national pairs Chan Chong Ming-Chew Choon Eng and Gan Teik Chai-Tan Bin Shen to carry strong challenges.

For the last one week, Wan Wah-Tan Fook and Chong Ming-Choon Eng have been training together with South Korean players at their sponsors’ training base in China.

“We were invited by our sponsor (Victor) to attend a stint at their training camp.

“Initially, we were reluctant but now, we are happy that we took up the offer,” said Wan Wah in a telephone interview.

“We had quality training sessions with the Korean players who were also invited join the camp. But Yong-dae did not turn up and we were told that he was still nursing a hand injury.”

In the China Masters, Tan Fook-Wan Wah were drawn in the same half as Yong-dae and his partner, Jung Jae-sung, who were the top seeds. Injury to Yong-dae also kept the top Korean pair out of the Taiwan Open last month.

The others in the same half of the draw are Chong Ming-Choon Eng, Guo Zhengdong-Xu Chen of China and South Koreans Hwang Ji-man-Shin Baek-cheol.

In the absence of Yong-dae-Jae-sung, Wan Wah said that the pair to beat would be two-time world champions Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng.

“They have been in impressive form and they did well to win the world title (defeating Yong-dae-Jae-sung in a nail-biting final in Hyderabad last month),” said Wan Wah.

“Tan Fook and I have gone through a hectic time over the last two months. It will not be easy for us here but we will give our best and continue to enjoy the game.”

Second seeds Cai Yun-Haifeng are in a half of the draw that has Teik Chai-Bin Shen and Cho Gun-woo-Yoo Yeon-seong of South Korea.

The China Masters will also not feature the top pairs from Indonesia and Denmark.

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