TheStar By RAJES PAUL PETALING JAYA: National doubles shuttler Chan Chong Ming will be out to make his presence felt when he resumes his partnership with Koo Kien Keat in the US$250,000 China Open, which begins today in Guangzhou. In a redraw made by the World Badminton Federation (WBF) yesterday, the third-fourth seeded Chong Ming-Kien Keat are in the same quarter as Indonesians Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan. They also have second seeds Jens Eriksen-Martin Lundgaard Hansen of Denmark in the same half. A good showing in Guangzhou will put them in good stead for the Doha Asian Games in December. Chong Ming said that he was looking forward to playing in the China Open after having to withdraw from the recent World Championships in Madrid on the eve of the competition last month following the death of his father. In his absence, Kien Keat featured in only the mixed doubles with Wong Pei Tty and they emerged as the best Malaysian performers – reaching the semi-finals. In the just concluded Japan Open, Kien Keat partnered youngster Tan Boon Heong and they did well to finish as the runners-up. Chong Ming said before leaving for Guangzhou yesterday: “It is time for Kien Keat and me to produce more good results for the doubles department. I will give my best shot to make up for my recent absence.” Besides Chong Ming-Kien Keat, who won the Swiss Open and Melbourne Commonwealth Games titles this year, chief coach Yap Kim Hock is also looking at the other Asiad-bound pair of Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah to give a strong showing in the China Open. “We had high hopes on the Asiad-bound singles players at the Japan Open. In the China Open, our focus will be on the doubles players for the Asiad. We hope to see better results from them,” said Kim Hock. At the Japan Open, the top two Malaysian men's singles players – Lee Chong Wei and Mohd Hafiz Hashim – were beaten by Indonesian Taufik Hidayat and eventual champion Lin Dan of China in the semi-finals and quarter-finals respectively. Chong Wei and Hafiz are skipping the China Open. Tan Fook-Wan Wah have been drawn in the same quarter as archrivals Alven Yulianto-Luluk Hadiyanto of Indonesia. They have top seeds and world champions Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng of China in their half. The other men's doubles pairs in the fray are Boon Heong-Hoon Thien How, Gan Teik Chai-Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif and Chew Choon Eng-Hong Chieng Hun. In the men's singles, Malaysia have Asiad-bound Kuan Beng Hong in the fray. He is likely to play against second seed Chen Jin of China in the third round. The other Malaysians in the men's singles competition are Yeoh Kay Bin, James Chua, K. Yogendran, Tan Chun Senag, Beryno Wong and Pei Wee Chung. In the women's competition, Malaysia have Wong Mew Choo and Julia Wong in the singles and Wong Pei Tty-Chin Eei Hui in the doubles
Chan Chong Ming is a good player but he isn't that great. He's certainly not in the class of any of the top 5 pair doubles players. Koo Kien Keat looks really promising, what is he 5 years younger or something? I think CCM & KKK will split up just like CCM & CCE have. CCM isn't getting any better, while KKK when I watched him in the last commonwealth games looked really good, he was winning the games for the pair on the net, creating all the chances and is defensively very good. CCM is the smasher at the back of the court, and although he's quite good at the back he isn't exactly very good in defence as most of the time he looks awkward with his back hand defence all the way round to his forehand side, as he is usually too commited to his backhand to create any good attacking drives. His net play is also not very good, compared to Fu Haifeng who also plays at the back. One other thing is, doesn't CCM seem to flick serve alot? He seems to not have any confidence in his opponent at the back or maybe his low serve isn't very good. I think KKK should be partnered with someone younger before it's too late, as I think it's obvious that this pair isn't going to have much of a chance in the Olympics and is doubtful whether they will ever win the WC. But saying that, Malaysia seems to be content with just winning the Malaysian Open.
Hmm... i wonder r we watching the same guys playin? His defense is definitely 1 of the best, he can even defend some of the killer half court smashes by the opponents, while KKK is the one who is making mistakes when defending. Net play is not he specialty (which is KKK's), but r u sure comparing him to FHF? Well, FHF is the one making loads of mistakes in front comparing to CY! There is definitely some reasons they r the most feared pair according to CY/FHF, because their flat drives and their serve/receiving of serve is very good. Wheareas these r the weakest parts of the chinese pair. Well, the weakest part for the CCM/KKK is perhaps their attack, which is weaker comparing to others esp the Koreans and Chinese.
I'm comparing him to Fu Haifeng precisely because they both play at the back of the court NOT because Fu Haifeng is better than Cai Yun at the net. Flat drives are a weak part of the chinese pair??? So you think the reason why the malaysian pair is not as good as the chinese pair is just because of their attack? Or do you think they are actually better than the chinese pair? The most feared pair???
Dude, i seriously dont think FHF's net skills is any better, he make tons of mistakes there. The chinese pair nvr won against CCM/KKK. Their head to head is 0-2, understand? I did not say their they r better than CY/FHF, they hv diff advantages and weakness, just that the chinese pair's weakness is oppositely where the Malaysian pair is good in, that is why they named CCM/KKK as the pair they feared most. Wheareas, the reason why the malaysian pair couldnt do well against the Indons and Koreans is similar.
Actually CCM has the best defence i might say compared to KKK. You will be amazed at his defences. Both of them are weak at attcking. CCM used to have sharp smashes when he won the junior titles before he got injured.
Not really convinced, although I would say that he defends a lot. I've seen him play in manchester commonwealth games, where he played against Simon Archer and an unknown and although they won, CCM just stays back with his backhand defence with CCE doing most of the driving and creating the attacks. I watched CCM again in the last commonwealth games this time with KKK in the semis (I think playing against Blair and Clark) and it was once again his partner doing most of the attacking drives and creating most of the attacks, but this time KKK doing a much better job than CCE did. I'm not particularly complaining about his smashes, I just don't think that CCM and KKK will win anything major together. While I think KKK would probably do a lot better with a new partner given that he is what, like 5 years younger i think. Note:Head to Heads are useful, but I could also use head to heads to argue than Roslin Hashim is a better player than Gade or Wong Choong Han is a better player than Taufik, but nobody would really buy that.
True. But they must hv some good specialty which their opponents doenst hv in order to beat them consistently right?
Well, yes I agree with that, just as Fu and Cai have problems against LWW and CTF. But FHF and CY I feel will win many tournaments to come and I think they will still continue to improve. While CCM has been around for a long time and is not getting any better and I feel its a bit unreasonable to expect KKK to improve dramatically in the near future to bring something new to the pairing. I mean what are your expectations of the pair in the future?
i wonder if BAM have given KKK a choice of who he prefers to partner, CCM or TBH. seems KKK and TBH make a really decent pair as well, if they are able to beat JE/ML.
To me, KKK and TBH pair seem to have a wider range of improvement... TBH definitely has the potential to be the attacker from the back, all he needs to do is gaining some experience, reducing unforced error and developing better understanding with his partner.
Dude, flat drives IS the weakness of Fu/Cai. And Candra/Tony just took big advantage of it and thrashed them. Cai Yun actually confirmed Babatte's report about how T/C won in his blog. Also in HKO CTF/LWW drives a lot and finally turned the game over. There is no video of how CCM/KKK defeated Fu/Cai twice but I guess they use flat drives too. Another thing is that CCM/KKK can match Fu/Cai's speed. And KKK in his good days I think can dominate Cai Yun at the net. Malaysian pairs have best record against Cai/Fu this year. I think they caused most of Cai/Fu's losses (besides Candra/Tony, any non-Malaysian managed to beat Cai/Fu this year? )
Main reason I think KKK/CCM and FHF/CY are in the same level except Fu/Cai have won major titles. The main reason KKK/CCM have yet to win any mojor title is because they are THE Malaysians, our tradition is to be THE runner-up
LOL... BAM will be quite happy if they can be runner-up more often. I hope someday that FHF/CY can produce a world class match with KKK/CCM like the ones we used to see with Tony/Halim vs Kim/Ha or Candra/Sigit kind of top-tier matches... those are just all worthy of computer memory space!!! One thing I like more about FHF/CY over other teams is the fact the 3 of us hate playing a flat-drive game!!!
Agree with that, but TBH needs to work most on his defence (normally a Malaysian specialty). In the game against Candra/Tony, his defence let him down. There were a few rallies where KKK saved so many consecutive killer shots from Candra/Tony, only to be let down when Tony pushed the shuttle to TBH. And it was a relatively simple saveable smash.
dun worry.. its still early for TBH... he still have like around 10-14 yrs ahead of him as he is only 19... LWW is now 32 already n he is still able to play competitively...
They really seriously need to get cracking (especially CCM). Beaten by the XIA MAN. Xia Xuanze really is not cool, first Wong Choong Hann, now he move on to doubles and do this.
