TheStar KUALA LUMPUR: The national number one men’s doubles pair of Chan Chong Ming-Koo Kien Keat will have to mend their differences ahead of the World Badminton Championships, which will be played in Anaheim, California, from Aug 15-21. Just two weeks into the job as the coach of the men’s doubles players, Indonesian Rexy Mainaky said that the lack of communication was affecting their performance as a pair in international tournaments. And he has made an arrangement yesterday for Chong Ming and Kien Keat to meet a psychologist at the National Sports Institute (NSI) in Bukit Jalil. “Their relationship on court is not good. Chong Ming is not confident with Kien Keat and vice versa,” said Rexy after a training session at the Juara Stadium in Bukit Kiara here yesterday. “This is affecting their own self-belief. Negative thoughts are hampering their progress. “We have about two weeks to the World Championships and we hope the meeting with the psychologist will do them good.” Chong Ming-Kien Keat are the highest ranked of the four Malaysian pairs for the World Championships and they are expected to be seeded at number eight. The others in the fray are Ong Soon Hock-Tan Bin Shen, Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Lin Woon Fui and Choong Tan Fook-Chew Choon Eng. Chong Ming-Kien Keat enjoyed mixed fortunes since they forged a partnership after the Athens Olympics last August. They did well in the first three tournaments – China Open (quarter-finals), Singapore Open (semi-finals) and Taiwan Open (champions). After that, they crashed out in early rounds and their best achievement thus far was in the recent Malaysian Open where they lost to Indonesians Alven Yulianto-Luluk Hadiyanto in the quarter-finals. Chong Ming was also carrying a nagging shoulder injury and his partnership with Kien Keat struggled to live up to the high expectations the country had on them. The 25-year-old Chong Ming said yesterday that they would certainly work things out to get their partnership back in the groove. “We are friends and we can joke about anything,” said Chong Ming. “But somehow we have kept the issue on our performances to ourselves. We have been in a rush to do well and the shoulder problem has been a frustration for me. “I am aware that something is not right with my partnership with Koo. “We will work to get it right and bring our game to greater heights.” Adds the 20-year-old Kien Keat: “This uncomfortable feeling has crept in since both of us started doing poorly in tournaments. “I am worried for our future and I hope the discussion tomorrow will help us get better.” Kien Keat will be making his debut in the World Championships while Chong Ming will be making his third appearance. Chong Ming’s best achievement in the series was a semi-final appearance with Choon Eng in the 2001 championships in Seville.
Time for change Funny how Rexy can nail down the problem just after few days at work while none of the previous coaches manage to spot the problem. It's obvious these two guys have no confident on one another and have very contrasting style of playing. Kien Kiat is flashy and while Choon Ming is conservative. I think if Choon Ming can not improve his smash(due to injury) then he just can't play MD, is that simple. As for Kien Kiat, put him with Tan Fook or Wan Wah is really not a bad idea as these two still have power and experience but lack of speed.
He had a series of meetings with Coach Yap KH and the players. They did pointed out the problems. He is going to use his approach to so call "heal" the communication gap.
i really hope rexy would do well in malaysia, but just enough to put malaysia second to indonesia . if he does too well, it would be total irony for us indonesian b coz MD is our only pride remain. indonesian MD lost to ex indonesian most respected MD player, that would be tragic:crying:
I can't imagine what the first session would be like: ChanChongMing: Hello, my name is Chan Chong Ming, and I'm a professional badminton-a-holic. Kean Kiat is the incarnation of my inner demons, and I have to resolve that issue. In two weeks please. -dave
Nothing exciting Malaysia have 4 pairs of MD going to World Championship but none of them can advance beyond QF, could be the new record in WC history.
Don't bet on it. I am sure there were many times all Malaysian MD pairs failed to make the quarters. Sad to say, the only pair with the penetration to possibly win the title are veterans Choong/Lee, who are not even going as a pair.
