28th Oct '05 Kien Keat and Chong Ming to contest doubles crown PETALING JAYA: Shuttler Mohd Hafiz Hashim broke Danish hearts to set up a first-ever all-Malaysian men’s singles final in the Denmark Open badminton championships in Aarhus yesterday. The former All-England champion eliminated the last Danish hope, Niels Christian Kaldau, 15-5, 15-2 in just 35 minutes in the semi-finals yesterday. Hafiz, who bagged the Dutch Open title last Sunday, will make a bid to win his first five-star international title when he faces Lee Chong Wei in the final today. Chong Wei, the national number one, booked his place in the final by beating fellow Malaysian Wong Choong Hann 17-14, 15-4 in the other semi-final. Hafiz went through a torrid time on Friday when he was forced to come back from a game down to beat India’s Chetan Anand 11-15, 15-10, 15-9 and he certainly did not look good to pull through. However, the Malaysian quickly asserted himself against the 21-year-old Kaldau, who was the only Dane left in the men’s singles competition after the exit of top seed Kenneth Jonassen and Peter-Gade Christensen in the third round on Thursday. For Chong Wei, it is also the first time he will make an appearance in the Denmark Open final. Choong Hann was the last Malaysian to feature in the men’s singles final. He lost to Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen in the 1999 edition. Chong Wei had handed Dicky Palyama a duck en route to his 15-12, 15-0 semi-final win on Friday while Choong Hann showed that he is not ready to bow out of top level competition yet with a superb comeback win over world junior champion Chen Jin of China. However, the 15-13, 3-15, 15-13 win over the much younger Chen Jin took its toll on the 29-year-old and he ran out of steam after pushing Chong Wei to the limit in the first game. There was more joy for Malaysia when the men’s doubles pair of Koo Kien Keat-Chan Chong Ming made it to the final as well. Kien Keat-Chong Ming, the bronze medallists in the World Championships in Anaheim in August, earned their first appearance in the final after beating Japan’s Shintaro Ikeda-Shuichi Sakamoto 15-7, 15-2. The Malaysians will face defending champions and second seeds Lars Paaske-Jonas Rasmussen in today’s final. Paaske-Rasmussen, the 2003 world champions, defeated compatriots Danes Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen 17-15, 1-15, 15-7 in the other semi-final.
