SURABAYA: It looks like Malaysia’s loss will be Singapore’s gain as the Islanders have now appointed South Korean Yoo Yong-sung (pic) as their doubles head coach.

The two-time Olympic silver medallist was assistant to Malaysia’s doubles head coach Tan Kim Her.

But he had a fallout with the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) last May and quit in a huff. BAM have since hired Indonesian Paulus Firman as doubles coach.

And Yong-sung is now working wonders for Singapore.

Yesterday, Singapores top men’s pair – world No. 61 Terry Yeo-Liu Yi — defied the odds when they came back from a game down to stun world No. 12 VladimirIvanov-Ivan Sozonov of Russia, playing for the Europe All Stars team.

Terry-Liu Yi won 17-21, 21-16, 21-19 in the fourth match of the tie, which proved to be the winning point for Singapore who overcame the Europeans 3-1.

And Terry immediately credited Yong-sung’s coaching for their excellent display.

“We’ve definitely improved a lot with the new coach and we now enter a match feeling more confident,” said Terry.

“I never really thought that we’ll be able to defeat the Russians because we only went into the match with the mindset of trying to do well. It’s realy a good result.

“This is just our first tournament of the year as we’ve been training hard for the past month under the new coach and it is nice to see some results.

“I believe the Axiata Cup has given us an opportunity to shine and we’re really looking forward to our next match,” added Terry.

Earlier, Singapore scored two points through the efforts of mixed doubles pair Danny Bawa Chrisnanta-Vanessa Neo and men’s singles shuttler Ashton Chen, who defeated Nathan Robertson-Jenny Wallwork and Scott Evans respectively.

Spain’s Carolina Marin had delivered the first point for Europe by defeating Xing Aiying 21-12, 21-12 in the opening tie.

In other ties, hosts Indonesia flexed their muscles on home ground as they crushed an inexperienced Vietnam side 4-0.

Ricky Karanda Suwardi-Bellaetri Manuputri gave them the lead by beating Duong Bao Duc-Thai Thi Hong Gan 21-12, 21-13 in the mixed doubles before Simon Santoso made it 2-0 by defeating Nguyen Hoang Nam 21-14, 21-10.

Women singles shuttler Aprilia Yuswandari then edged Vu Thi Trang 25-23, 21-18 before men’s pair Suwardi-Muhammad Ullinuha sealed the victory by beating Bao Minh-Huyh Nguyen Khang 21-14, 21-14.

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