TheStar PETALING JAYA: The six-month old men's doubles partnership of Gan Teik Chai-Mohd Zakry Latif bagged their first international title in the Vietnam Satellite Open, which ended on Sunday. They lived up to their top billing by beating second seeds Han Sang-hoon-Hwang Ji-man of South Korea 4-15, 17-15, 15-4 in the final. En route to the final, the Malaysians eliminated Indonesia's Yoga Uki Kasah-Yonathan Suryatama 15-12, 15-8 and Vietnamese number one Nguyen Quang Minh-Tram Thanh Hai 17-14, 15-8 in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively. Gan Teik Chai and Mohd Zakry Latif won their first men's doubles international crown at the Vietnam Satellite Badminton Open in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday. Project 2010 player Julia Wong also had an impressive run in Ho Chi Minh City when she sent reigning Commonwealth Games champion Li Li of Singapore packing en route to reaching the final. The unseeded Malaysian beat her China-born opponent 11-9, 11-7 in the quarter-finals. Julia, a semi-finalist in the National Grand Prix Finals in Ipoh last year, qualified for the final with a 11-9, 11-2 win over Vietnam's Le Ngoc Nguyen Nhung. However, the 19-year-old found Thailand's Sujitra Ekmongkolpaisarn too strong for the taking in the final, losing 1-11, 4-11. Another Project 2010 player Tan Chun Seang reached the semi-finals in the men's singles before bowing out to South Korean Jung Hoon-min (9-15, 13-15). Chun Seang was the only one out of the four Malaysian men's singles players to advance from the quarter-finals. Azahar Azrihanif lost 6-15, 1-15 to Jeffer Rosobin of Indonesia; Law Yew Thien lost 1-15, 8-15 to Nguyen Thien Minh of Vietnam; and Lim Kenn fell 10-15, 15-12, 4-15 to Hoon-min. Indonesia's second seed Simon Santoso took the men's singles title, beating Hoon-min 15-2, 15-3 in the final. National chief coach Yap Kim Hock expressed satisfaction over the performance of Teik Chai-Zakry. “Now that their partnership have brought them their first international title, I hope they can push the current pairs in the national team to not take their places for granted,” he said yesterday.
The Malaysian men doubles Gan Teik Chai-Mohd Zakry Latif really made impression on the VNmese badminton fans by very fast speed and tactic shuttle lines.They moved in sensible way of setting sudden counter-attact,neutralized the drives and stong smashing of their opponents. Speed and flexibility,the most important constituents a winner in double games, I think so!