Lee Chong Wei has dominated the Badminton World Federation (BWF) world rankings and the OSIM BWF World Superseries rankings for the past four years, but he has yet to win two of the most important titles - the World Championships and Olympics.
He will get a chance to put that right this August when the World Championships are held in London, but first he will have to negotiate a tricky draw in the Djarum Indonesia Open Superseries Premier, the third Superseries Premier of the new OSIM BWF World Superseries calendar after the Victor South Korea Open and Yonex All England. The tournament offers US$600,000 in prize money.
The Malaysian, who skipped last week's Li Ning Singapore Open Superseries, is the defending champion in Indonesia. He beat local favorite Taufik Hidayat, a six-time winner of this event, in last year's final.
Chong Wei may have to beat three Chinese players - 2008 world junior champion Wang Zhengming, Chen Long and arch nemesis, Lin Dan - if he is to retain his title. The other players in this half of the draw are Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto, Du Pengyu of China, Japan's Kenichi Tago, South Korean Lee Hyun-il, Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark and Vietnam's Nguyen Tien Minh.
The match-up everyone wants to see, however, is between Chong Wei and second seed Lin Dan, who many regard as the greatest player ever. The Chinese ace is a three-time world champion and reigning Olympic and Asian Games gold medallist.
For the local fans, the young but successful mixed doubles pairing of Tantowi Ahmad-Liliyana Natsir should give them plenty of cheers. Tantowi-Liliyana have won the last two Superseries tournaments in India and Singapore as well as the Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold. They are seeded fourth but start off against a tough match against South Korea's Lee Yong Dae-Ha Jung Eun, whom they beat en route to winning in Singapore.
Meanwhile, Indonesians dominated play on Tuesday with nine of the 20 qualifiers to the main draw. In fact, all the qualifiers from the women's doubles - Ririn Amelia-Melati Daeva Oktaviani, Imawan Gebby Ristiyani-Nuraidah Tiara Rosalia, Komala Dewi-Jenna Gozali and Anneke Feinya Agustin-Nitya Krishinda Maheswari - are from the host nation.
Source : Badminton World Federation
0 comments:
Post a Comment