TheStar Sept 19th

WONG Mew Choo pulled off a great escape and survived her opening round match of the World Championships against Taiwan's Chien Yu Chin at the Palacio de Deportes in Madrid yesterday.

The national number one, who is seeded 13th, stared at defeat when she trailed her opponent, world number 61st ranked opponent 18-21, 16-20.

But Mew Choo reeled off six consecutive points to win the second game at 22-20 and played with renewed confident in the rubber to win at 21-10.

She admitted that she was lucky indeed that Yu Chin was unable to seal match point.

“I don't know how I did it but being relieved would be an understatement on how I feel now,” said Mew Choo.

“I knew I had nothing to lose and had to throw caution when she reached match point. It was one of those rare occasions when such plans turned out well.”

She added that she received a ticking off from coach Li Mao for playing 20% of what she was capable of.

“I made the mistakes that put me in a difficult spot. I could not get my game going and conceded too many easy points. I am glad that I managed to turn my game around in the nick of time. I need to buck up and put on a much better performance in the second round.”

After the match, Mew Choo placed ice packs on both her knees to ease the pain on her legs and she blamed it on the hardness of the court.

“The impact on the legs was very hard every time I land after jumping. The ice packs are just a precaution to prevent soreness,” said Mew Choo, who will play against Indonesia's Fransisca Ratnasari in the second round tomorrow.

Fransisca downed Switzerland's Jeanine Cicognini 21-18, 21-17. The winner of the second round match is drawn to meet top seed and world number one Zhang Ning of China.

Two of the Malaysian women's doubles pairs in action yesterday cleared the first round hurdle.

Ooi Sock Ai-Mooi Hing Yau downed Scotland's Imogen Bankier-Emma Mason 21-16, 21-18 while Fong Chew Yen-See Phui Leng beat Malgorzata Kurdelska-Paulina Matusewicz of Poland 21-15, 21-14.

But Chew Yen and Phui Leng's exploits are expected to come to an end in the second round today against the ninth-16th seeds Kumiko Ogura-Reiko Sheita of Japan.

Sock Ai-Hing Yau have a chance advance in their match against unheralded Sabrina Jaquet-Corrine Joerg of Switzerland today.

The non-BAM combination of Lim Pek Siah-Chor Hooi Yee were beaten 17-21, 21-16, 17-21 by second ranked Thais Duang-Anong Arunkesorn-Kunchala Vorawichitchaikul.

The fourth Malaysian women's doubles pair, eighth seeds Wong Pei Tty-Chin Eei Hui, drew a first-round bye and will go into action today

Mew Choo might did that on purpose.

When I was learning ping-pong when I was a kid. A national player gave us a lesson. She said, in order to show friendship to those under-developed ping-pong countries, she did it on purpose to the brink almost lost. She said coach asked her show friendship to her opponents, so she managed to reach the score like 20:22, 15: 20, just 1 point away from total defeat. Then she began to play seriously, won the match 20:22, 22:20, 22:20. Actually the number did lie sometimes. She's in total control to make her opponent happy.

In fact, her opponent got even more angey, thought her victory was stolen.

Now Mew Choo did it again :)

Its too risky to show that kind of sportmanship.

Its too risky to show that kind of sportmanship.

Not risky in ping-pong (table tennis), especially when you serve at 15:20, if you good enough, you can win all 5 points (old system in ping pong) easily when you serve.

Strange, badminton picked up ping pong's scoring system which ping pong just abandoned.

By the way, that's not sportsmanship which is about honest and fair. That should be called friendship which is kind of make-ups. That's also an order from the team managers and coach.

Especially when she's telling her story, she wanted to show that her level was so high that she's confident to win 21:0 21:0.

To me, that is not logical. I wouldn't want to waste that much energy on court and staring at defeat on 16-20, any simple mistake would have been one whole year of preparation gone ! You might have argued that she made unforced errors where Chien win most of her points through. But if she made a mistake in any point of the critical moments, li mao wouldn't be amused

Whatever...I just hope WMC can continue fighting although she might meet ZN if she win...I know is not easy but just try her best...Maybe she can produce the biggest miracle in the WC this time...

WMC won because she is fitter and got the lucky break in the end of 2nd game, anyway hope this win will boost her confidence.

Not risky in ping-pong (table tennis), especially when you serve at 15:20, if you good enough, you can win all 5 points (old system in ping pong) easily when you serve.

Strange, badminton picked up ping pong's scoring system which ping pong just abandoned.

By the way, that's not sportsmanship which is about honest and fair. That should be called friendship which is kind of make-ups. That's also an order from the team managers and coach.

Especially when she's telling her story, she wanted to show that her level was so high that she's confident to win 21:0 21:0.

yup, i don't think this makes sense either. maybe in the first set, but never in the second set when you've lost the first. that's just too risky.