Badminton: Fitter, meaner Lee By RAJES PAUL PETALING JAYA: The smile is back on the country's top men's singles shuttler Lee Chong Wei after going through three weeks of a punishing training regime under the charge of Misbun Sidek. And now that he had gained a little more confidence in his game, Chong Wei hopes to score a first this year – by reaching the semi-finals in either the Singapore Open or Indonesian Open. The Singapore Open starts tomorrow with the qualifying tournament. And the Indonesian Open will be held in Jakarta the following week. Chong Wei, who left for Singapore with his team-mates yesterday, has not got past the quarter-finals of an international tournament thus far this year. He is aware that making the semi-finals will not be an easy task because he has in his quarter of the draw world number one Lin Dan in both tournaments. In the Singapore Open, Chong Wei takes on Mohd Hafiz Hashim in the opening round. In the Indonesian Open, Chong Wei opens his campaign against Denmark's Joachim Persson and could meet either Hafiz or Indonesian Simon Santoso in the second round. “The early rounds will not be easy in both tournaments. But if I can put into practice what I have improved on in training under Misbun over the last three weeks, I can get through,” said Chong Wei. “The toughest challenge will most likely be against Lin Dan. If I meet him, I will try to keep up with his pace this time.” After walking around with his head held low following uninspiring performances since early this year, the world number five player Chong Wei said that he was getting his old feeling back. “I feel happy because I am getting what I want in training. There has been slight improvement on my speed. Misbun has been sharpening my attacking skills as well,” he said. “I was mopping over my poor performances and I lost my confidence. I may not be at my best yet as there are still a few areas that I need to improve on but I am heading in the right direction. “It has been long since I last reached the semi-finals of an international tournament. Let's see whether I can pull it off this time. I just want some good results before the World Championships (Aug 13-19 at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil).” Chong Wei's self-doubt and loss of confidence started after he lost to Bao Chunlai of China in the last eight of the World meet in Madrid last year. Prior to that he had an impressive string of titles, which included winning the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Swiss Open, Asian Championships and the Malaysian Open in the first half of last year. En route to Singapore yesterday, Chong Wei and his team-mates did some promotional work for the World Championships. They stopped at the Ayer Keroh rest area along the North-South Highway and distributed pamphlets on the championships and also met the fans.
good to hear lcw getting some of his 'touch' back. If he gets past 1st,2nd round and somehow manage to beat LD it would do his confidence a world of good
The problem is even though Malaysians talk a lot, Chinese take it for granted their players will win every match. Remember FU-CAI, they were spposed to be invincible but all the 'talking' by the Malaysians finally came through. FU-CAI are now not confident when they get beaten by KKK-TBH so many times. Come the 2nd game, you can tell they act like they have lost their confidence. Without talk, there will be no action. I can tell you this, if LD is not anywhere near his best, expect no quarters from LCW. He is now conditioned to be at his sharpest. We might see a change in the winds my friend. LCW, TH, PG, and KJ are there to make sure Chinese will not have it easy ! Feel the fear and expect to lose so you will not be too disappointed in the end ! What do I mean by that ? If you cast your mind back to the MO when LD was beaten narrowly, I expect this to be the result...a narrow victory for LCW. Don't take things for granted
Lee Chong Wei is usually quite humble so I believe he has regained some of his confidence back under Misbun's tutoring. It won't be easy to achieve the goal advance to SF as he has to overcome Lin Dan in QF. There's a lot of uncertainty too about Lin Dan, how's his recovery after sustained an injury from Swiss Open? Anyway, hope thing goes well for Malaysians!
I don't think LCW will immediately beat LD in S'pore Open, but it would be good to start getting back in the groove, maybe to force LD to play rubber sets. LCW needs a lot of work (physically and mentally) before he can be on equal terms with LD/Taufik/Gade again and beat other CHN top players.
Yes, i agree with abedeng, if he could improve from what he showed in ABC,..that good enought, step by step ....i am confident he 'boleh' to be among top 4 in the world,...........
I hope LCW gets his old form back, I don't think any of the top singles players have defensive qualities like his. And he's got a pretty deadly jump smash.
Gone are the days when you can beat more talented adversaries using defensive qualities alone. Players with styles like Ardy Wiranata, Foo Kok Keong and Xiong Guobao would not be able to achieve much. Just look at Kenneth Jonassen and Roslin, still among the top, but hardly winning any tournament.
lcw got toasted on the first round. more proof that misbun's training is not effective. With li mao, lcw at least gets to the quarter or semi
so many upsets today at SO...from Chen Hong, LCW, Zhu Lin ,Lulan ( all chinese girls losing 2 sets..),KKK/TBH, Kellog/blair...even Ping Hong Yan almost lost to Zhou Mi.....good for badminton...
LOL, what are you talking about man ? LCW lost to Hafiz, both trained by Misbun. Hafiz was so motivated, he stretched beyond his normal self to win. If anything, I think Misbun has done a good job with Hafiz. And LCW is coming back nicely, losing to Hafiz is no shame in this case.
Always tough to play teammates...as they know their style in training like TH had to beat Tommy in very close sets.... The problem is LCW can not get confident back easily...again in Indo open, he will meet hafiz or Simon again... anyway Hafiz needed this win to prove he is as good as LCW....really bad draw for both of them to meet earlier...just like TH vs LD in Malay open
It's ok losing to your teammates sometimes, good for competition. Anyway, from the match, one thing that LCW needs to improve further is finishing, he led 19-16 in rubber before surrendering initiative to Hafiz. Also goes to show that Hafiz is not weak minded when cornered, he is more than capable of fighting back. Only problem with him is consistency.
Totally agree with you that it is ok losing to teammates, especially a strong teammate like Hafiz, who can go on to play well. I am looking forward to see how Hafiz play next.
Agree. Looked like LCW underestimated Hafiz and practised energy conservation to his loss. LCW should just forget about energy conservation because he needs to play with fire to get fired up. Go all out right from the start or be out. He's carrying too much fuel and needs to burn them fast. And he needs to train for closing.It's like sales closing.Needs to be practised until it's second nature so there's no need to think about it.Of course it's not that simple but what's there to lose when the record is so bad. But I'm delighted for Hafiz.This win will boost his confidence and I hope it also means he's in good shape. Meantime, it's nice of LCW to give hafiz an early wedding present. Hope he takes some time out to shop and appreciate some of Loh's tourism efforts. It'll help him to be fresher for IO.Enjoy your early break, LCW!
