KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian badminton fans are continuing to lose confidence in Mohd Hafiz Hashim.
He was an early round casualty yet again, this time going down to former Asian junior champion Kenichi Tago of Japan in the Indonesian Open at the Istora Senayan in Jakarta yesterday. He was beaten 17-21, 14-21 in the fifth leg tournament of the Super Series.
With his latest slide in performance, Hafiz may no longer get to enjoy the luxury of being one of the favourite picks for future major international tournaments.
In fact, Hafiz’s future in the national team and whether he will continue to get the funding from the National Sports Council (NSC) will be determined after his outing at the Thailand Open next week.
His elder brother, Mohd Roslin, also crashed in the first round yesterday. The Nusa Mahsuri veteran was beaten 11-21, 16-21 by second seed Bao Chunlai of China.
Besides the Hashims, the Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) Yeoh Kay Bin also showed that his days in the national team were numbered after a 17-21, 20-22 defeat by Holland’s Dicky Palyama.
The only Malaysian men’s singles players to survive yesterday were the KLRC Bhd duo of Lee Tsuen Seng and Sairul Amar Ayob.
Tsuen Seng beat Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto 27-25, 21-17 while Sairul went to the distance to chalk up a 21-19, 18-21, 21-17 victory over Chan Yan Kit of Hong Kong.
In the second round today, Tsuen Seng will play against Singaporean Kendrick Lee while Sairul will take on Poland’’s Wacha Przemyslaw.
In the men’s doubles, four Malaysian men’s pairs – Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari, Chan Chong Ming-Chew Choon Eng, Khoo Chung Chiat-Tan Bin Shen, Hoon Thien How-Ong Soon Hock – made it to the second round.
But only Singapore Open champions Zakry-Fairuzizuan stand a good chance to advance to the quarter-finals. They play against Koreans Cho Gun-woo-Yoo Yeon-seong in the second round.
Chong Ming-Choon Eng have a tough task against world champions and top seeds Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia.
The new senior-junior pair of Chung Chiat-Bin Shen and Thien How-Soon Hock have tough opponents in seventh seeds Mathias Boe-Carsten Morgensen of Denmark and fourth seeds Shintaro Ikeda-Shuichi Sakamoto of Japan respectively.
In the women’s doubles, Olympians Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty cruised into the second round with a 21-13, 21-17 win over Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen-Mie Schjoett-Kristensen to set up a meeting against Russians Valeri Sorokina-Nina Vislova.
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