PETALING JAYA: The world's best players will be around and it will be a tall order – but top national men's singles shuttler Lee Chong Wei has found extra motivation to win the Malaysian Open title for the fourth consecutive time this year.
A win, he feels, will be a perfect gift for the country as the Malaysian Open, which will be held from Jan 16-21 at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium (KLBA), is celebrating its' 50th anniversary.
The country, too, will be celebrating its 50th years of independence.
The US$200,000 Malaysian Open is the season opener for this year's Super Series introduced by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
“It will bring me great joy to win the Malaysian Open on its 50th anniversary,” said the current world number two player.
“Malaysia is also celebrating its 50th year of independence. There is no better time than this to win the title and bring cheer to the home supporters. This will certainly motivate me,” said Chong Wei.
The Malaysian Open began in 1937 – 70 years ago – but will celebrate its 50th anniversary because there was no competition from 1942-1946 and from 1967-1982.
Since the tournaments' inception in 1937, only three players – Wong Peng Soon, Rashid Sidek and Chong Wei – have won the Malaysian Open for three consecutive years. Peng Soon, in fact, holds the record for winning it five straight years.
The 24-year-old Chong Wei could close in on the record by winning this time and he is determined to start the year with a bang.
“I know that the world's best players have confirmed their entries. It is the first leg of the Super Series and all are hoping to be the first winners. It will not be easy at all but I welcome the challenge,” said Chong Wei.
China will be banking on reigning world champion Lin Dan, Bao Chunlai, Chen Hong, Chen Jin and Chen Yu while Indonesia will be relying heavily on Asian Games champion Taufik Hidayat.
The other stars are Denmark's Peter Gade-Christensen and Kenneth Jonassen, South Korean Lee Hyun-il and Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana.
Thanks to the new BWF ruling that separates only the top two seeds in the 32-player draw, some of the first round matches could go down the wire.
“It could be tough from the first round but I am looking forward for a great start to the year,” said Chong Wei.
Except for winning the individual gold at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March, Chong Wei went down fighting in the All-England semi-finals, World Championships quarter-finals in Madrid and Doha Asian Games semi-finals.
His main goal this year is the World meet from Aug 12-19 in Kuala Lumpur.
“It will be held at home and I want to emerge as the winner here. It is also the qualifying year for the Olympic Games (2008 in Beijing) and I want to do well in some of the other Open tournaments,” he said. “My coach (Li Mao) has beefed up my training programme. I am focusing on some tactical approaches in my game to give me that little edge against some of the players like Lin Dan and Taufik.”