TheStar 5th Jan BASEL: Malaysia's top women singles player Wong Mew Choo exacted revenge for her defeat in the Manila SEA Games final last December with a come from behind win over Adrianti Firdasari of Indonesia in the first round of the Swiss Open badminton championships played here yesterday. Mew Choo, who failed to defend her Games title, moved into the second round after a 4-11, 11-2, 11-6 win over her Indonesian rival. She will meet South Korea's Lee Hyun-jin in the second round. Mew Choo will be joined by M. Sutheaswari, who chalked up a 11-5, 11-2 win over Switzerland's Jeannine Cicognini. James Chua beat his Malaysian teammate Lee Tsuen Seng 15-11, 15- 9 to advance to the second round of the men's singles competition. Meanwhile, Malaysia's challenge in the mixed doubles ended when fifth seeds Koo Kien Keat-Wong Pei Tty went down fighting to Koreans Lee Young-dae-Hwang Yu-mi in a firstround match yesterday. The Malaysian were beaten 17-16, 11-15, 7- 15. Earlier, sixth seeds Robert Blair-Natalie Munt of England eliminated Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Ooi Sock Ai, winning the first0-round match 15-4, 15-7. National back-up squad's Yeoh Kay Bin beat China's Lu Yi 15-13, 15-8 to advance to the second round of the men's singles competition. He will play against Dicky Palyama of Holland today. Former national player Sairol Amar Ayob also advanced, beating John Gordon of New Zealand 15-9, 15-10 to set up a second-round match against Aamir Ghaffar of England. However, K. Yogendran was a firstround casualty. He was beaten 8-15, 11-15 by China's Li Yu. The top Malaysian singles trio of top seed Lee Chong Wei, Mohd Hafiz Hashim and Wong Choong Hann all received first-round byes. James Chua earned a place in the main draw of the men's singles competition against teammate Lee Tsuen Seng. He beat Christian Lind Thomsen of Denmark 15-4, 15-1 in his final match in the qualifying tournament. Earlier he defeated Christian Boesiger of Swtizerland 15-4, 15-2. In the women's competition, Julia Wong and Norsyahliza Baharum, who are from the 2010-2012 Project squad under Rashid Sidek, failed to get places in the main draw. Norsyahliza fell at the final hurdle of the qualifying round, losing 11-9, 2- 11, 3-11 to South Korean Lee Hyun-jin. She had beaten Claudia Vogelgsang of Germany 11-3, 11-4 and Kristina Ludikova of Czech Republic 11-1, 11-6. Julia beat Karin Schnaase of Germany 11-0, 11-3 but lost 1-11, 0- 11 to China's Wang Lin.
Malaysia womens team is making good progress but there is still a long way to catch up Korea and China. With current standard, Mew Choo is able to give its opponents from these two nations pinch of a needle.....not a hard punch.
