Saturday April 28, 2007 Hafiz hopes to take game to greater heights after tying the knot By RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: Men’s singles shuttler Mohd Hafiz Hashim will tie the knot with his long time sweetheart on June 3. And after the wedding he plans to give his all to take his game back to the top. And the first tournament that Hafiz will give his full attention after his marriage with Nadzatul Shima Mohd Nazari is the World Championships at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil from Aug 13-19. The 25-year-old Hafiz has not made much impact in his previous three outings in the World Championships and this time, with home ground advantage, he intends to make a breakthrough. Hafiz, whose best result in the world meet was a quarter-final finish in Madrid last year, believes that marriage will bring him good fortune in badminton. “I got engaged to Nadzatul on Feb 17. The wedding is on June 3. Life will be different for me but not my zeal to take my badminton career to greater heights,” said Hafiz after a training session at the Juara Stadium in Bukit Kiara yesterday. “This marriage will make my parents very happy. They are old (father Hashim is 69 years old while mother Habsah is 59) and I do not want to keep them waiting any longer. “In fact, marriage life will certainly make me a more responsible person.” It was through a junior badminton competition during the National Schools Championships (MSSM) in Penang eight years ago that Hafiz first set eyes on Nadzatul. “She was not a badminton player but she was there with her family from Negri Sembilan as spectators. She was in Form Three then and I was in Form Five. Love blossomed from there. Since then, she has been my greatest supporter – through good and bad times,” said Hafiz. “In fact, I get wake-up calls in the mornings - just to ensure that I attend training sessions on time,” quipped the 2003 All-England champion. Prior to his marriage, Hafiz will be taking part in two international tournaments – the Singapore Open next week and the Indonesian Open from May 8-13. With him coming out of an injury and with the wedding preparation on his mind, Hafiz would be satisfied if he can improve on his world ranking by doing well at the two Opens. “It will be great if I can break into the top eight. It will give me a good seeding for the World Championships. But I must reach at least the quarter-finals in both the tournaments to achieve it.” He has been drawn to meet national number one Lee Chong Wei in the first round of the Singapore Open. In the Indonesian Open, he is up against the much-improved Simon Santoso of Indonesia in the opening round. If he makes it, he is set to take on Chong Wei again. “I have not beaten Chong Wei in the local tournaments. But I have beaten him once at the German Open. I will be ready for him in the Singapore Open,” said Hafiz. “But I will not be too worried if I fail to get good results in Singapore and Indonesia. My goal is to win at least a bronze in the World Championships,” he added. Congratulation on Hafiz .....
quite sad to hear bout dis... hehe... but it's ok... 4 de sake of his happiness... congratez to hafiz... N hope can attend his wedding... (if he willing to invite lahhh...)
yannie why u pening??to be honest i'm little bit suprised to hear this news..also a little bit sad..hehe..
Well many pll may agree that his game is bad. But instead of criticising him all the time, we should wish him more happiness in his new phase of life and hope that this will help him in refocusing his game.
Shocked!!! Oh yeah, and that's my new favourite word beside 'faint' now. Yeah, agree with ants. Happy for his decision.
Like what i've said... many pll agree his game is bad. Its always better to encourage than to discourage an individual no matter how bad they perform.
No wonder standards in Msian badminton continue to be low. We continue to encourage players who are not performing! In China, Korea and Indonesia they drop those under performing players while we continue to baby them Patut lah jagoh kampong!
CHN with a huge talent pool, forget about not performing, if the player is deemed "old" (eg CH), he is gone, because there is only 3 or 4 spots to represent CHN in high profile tourneys. KOR, besides LHI and Park who is there? In INA, Sony still playing, getting old and not winning anything of signficant nor highly ranked in world, Simon is the 3rd player and who is there, beside probably Tommy to break these threesome? HH, sure his game is disappointing and not performing as MAS fans expect of him, but he is still world ranked 8 or 9, and still young. Until there is someone to outrank or outplay HH, not that MAS is encouraging HH, there is actually noone to knock him of the team and like it or not, he is still MAS 2nd best player.
If HH is the 2nd best that MAS has, let's support him. If HH is dropped, who do we have...WCH, as good as he is before, his injury and age hinders him and WCH recently has a tough time getting out QF stage, and based on his ranking, could not even make it to WC07...or KBH or who else? Not that MAS would not want to drop HH cos' really there is no one to go to, ditto for INA who would miss TH after TH retires...MAS would love to have CHN's problem with such a huge talent pool, esp in WS and WD.
If you keep on betting on a lame horse, how will the younger ones be given a chance to step up?? To say that HH is the best we got is absolutely sickening. It is this kind of pampering attitude that makes Msian players complacent and get big headed. How and when will our juniors have the opportunity when you have under performing players like HH in front of them? Until we remove this subsidy mentality from our game, Msia will continue to have this jagoh kampong attitude!
You should look at the excuses you are dishing out! China - huge talent pool! Dude, India , Russia, USA all have large enough of a population. Do you see them as a badminton force??? It is not about population - to have a large enough talent pool. Look at Trinidad & Tobago, they have a population of 2.2 million and yet they made it to the WC in Germany last year. Korea??? They won the Olympic gold in Athens the last time round. Need I say more???? Dont get me started on Indonesia. Just look at PBSI trophy cabinet ... please! We just have too much excuses in Malaysian badminton
