The event is being held in KL. Yesterday in the semis Korea beat China 3-0 in boys' category. Then Korea lost to Ina in final this morning. Looks like we may see some very promising Korean singles players in future, tall, light and very fast and with good racquet skills. Countries as far as Iraq, Kazahstan,Syria, Bhutan ,Vietnam were represented but some of the players of the smaller countiries couldn't even connect racquet to shuttle when receiving a high serve.
The QF stage of this tour is over: Highlights- No china reps in boy's category in semis. Vast improvement of Thai and Japanese juniors. Match of the day match between Iwatasan and korean opponent very much like the 1997 World champs final, when the Japanese in 2nd set fought for a rubber despite limping. Impressive performance by Japanese girls in singles. Good show by one Santoso who is reputed to be brother of Chandra Wijaya. Great skills and attitude. Probably China sent a very weak team in boys category. Boys singles semis feature 2 koreans and Indonesians (1 in Singapore).
boys doubles Not bad at all. This boy, Koo Kien Keat, seems very promising. I think he can be a future doubles star if he works hard enough.
Koo Kien Keat and Ong Soon Hock might be the future of Malaysian doubles, I just hope they don't get swollen headed from now after winning the ABC junior title.
Obviously you have been hearing some courtside comments. The interesting thing about this under 18 tour is that it proves you can be a singles champion wearing glasses.
