Muhammad Hafiz Hashim crashed out in the first round of the Korean Open to Hadikusumo Wiratama of Hong Kong (sounds like another former Indonesian). Since winning the All-England, he has played at a mediocre level. I suspect that the accolades he received have affected his play. He should have played in the Dutch open immediately after winning the All-England and told that the All-England is no big deal. He might follow his brother of winning 2 tournaments and then dropping in form and ranking.

Ron

while it seems to be a Malaysian "tradition" to burst into a competition, wins some big tourneys, and then suffers the "Ji Xinpeng" syndrome, i think it is a bit too early to tell if Hafiz will become that. it is not unusual to see players experience ups and down. perhaps Hafiz isn't have too good a 2 weeks period. give the guy some time.

on the other hand, i think another problem with Malaysian players is that Malaysian fans (and also the government) have very high expectations from their players. if they ever win once, they will treat them as gods, with gifts and houses and land. but they also expect the player to win continuous from now on. however, if they ever start to lose, then everybody will start to wonder if he is just "lucky".

just look at hafiz, all he did was to beat Bao Chunlai and won the AE, surely some achievement but not really steller. and then the press start talking about how he is going to win the WC, there is quite a step from winning just the AE once and expecting him to win the WC. and then now he bows out of the JO and KO, everybody starts to doubt him.

i think that add unneccessary pressure to the players, and may potentially contribute to a player's downturn.