PARIS: Youngsters Gan Teik Chai-Koo Kien Keat captured their first ever men’s doubles title in an Open tournament in Paris yesterday.

But their more illustrious teammates and former Malaysian top doubles pair Chan Chong Ming-Chew Choon Eng may have to forget about their Olympic dreams after crashing out in the semi-finals of the French Open at the Carpentier Hall.

The world number 51 Teik Chai-Kien Keat defeated Denmark's Jesper Larsen-Joachim Fisher Nielsen 15-6, 17-15 in the men’s doubles final of the US$10,000 A grade tournament.

The duo had earlier upset world number 29 and Germany’s top pair Kristof Hopp-Joachim Tesche 15-2, 6-15, 15-5 in the quarter-finals and Denmark’s Thomas Jensen Rojkjaer-Tommy Sorensen 15-8, 15-6 in the semi-finals.

It was the duo’s first Grand Prix title since national doubles chief coach Yap Kim Hock took charge of them last year. They had also won the invitational Luster Open last year.

The win came in just a week after the duo upset Thailand’s formidable pair of Pramote Teerawiwatana-Tesana Panvisvas to reach the second round of the All-England.

If the duo continue with their good performances, they may be able to fight for a place to represent Malaysia in the Athens Games.

While the youngsters sizzled, seniors Chong Ming-Choon Eng blew away a good chance to pick some qualifying points for the Athens Games after losing to Larsen-Nielsen 15-8, 1-15, 8-15 in the last four.

The duo are currently ranked 37th in the world and with only the Korean Open (March 30-April 4), Japan Open (April 6-11) and the Asian Badminton Championships (ABC) remaining before the qualifying period end on April 30, it will be tough for the duo to finish among the top 16 to assure a place for the Athens Games.

Malaysia’s Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty, the second seeds, blew away a chance to win their first GP title and some points for the Athens Olympic Games, when they crashed out in the quarter-finals.

The duo went down to China’s Du Jing-Yu Fang 17-15, 10-15, 2-15 in the quarter-finals.

I am quite sure that they owe a lot to their youthful enthusiasm and energy to win it and with careful nurturing as well as more chances to experience world class badminton regularly, they will surely overtake Chan/Chew to become #2 and soon, #1. By winning this, no doubt it will really boost their confidence of handling international tournaments, regardless of the stars and prestige.

Still, some small but important strides made by the ladies, Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty as they went on to gain extra exposure as Khoo/Gan did, could only do much good to their game. Still a very long way to go in comparison to powerhouse China, but a journey of a thousand miles begin with the step.

Next stop, Corea and Nippon.

I don't understand why Malaysia don't send more of their upcoming players to "easy" events like the french.

Gan/koo had to win through qualifying at AE and still did well, clearly if they had been sent to european or australian/american events in the last year thay could have been much higher in the rankings and pushing for the olympics.

If you look at the events the Gan/Koo have played : AE, Swiss, China, Chinese-T, Hong Kong, Denmark, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore. Mostly they lose in qual or first round. You couldn't pick a harder list of events. They only scored from 21 to 100 ranking points at these events. When they played and won the Luster Malaysia satelite they won it and got 180 points!! This French win will give them another 180 pts.

Before the French they were ranked at only 51 in the world with a total of 1004 pts. This means no chance of olympics or even getting into main draw at the major events. Yet theoretically winning 10 A grade events, which they are good enough to do, would give a 1800 point total , putting a pair at 17 in the current world rankings, a position with olympic qual, direct entry to all the 5/6 star events etc.

So why the policy of only sending them to the biggest events. I can see that a pair needs to experince losing to the top players to learn, but surely winning some of the time would be more helpful.....