KUALA LUMPUR: A spate of withdrawals hit the US$200,000 Singapore Open badminton championships, which will begin today at the Singapore Indoor Stadium with the qualifying tournament.
Taufik: The third seeded Indonesian withdrew yesterday.
Men’s singles second seed Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark and third seed Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia withdrew from the tournament yesterday. Singaporen Kendrick Lee also opted out.
They were replaced in the main draw by players in the qualifying pool – Kenichi Tago (Japan), Hsieh Yu-hsin (Taiwan) and Jan Jorgensen (Denmark).
In the men’s doubles, top seeds Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia and Danes Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogenssen joined the list of withdrawals. Last week, the top two Malaysian pairs – Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah and Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong, who were seeded second and third respectively – withdrew because of injuries.
At the team managers’ meeting yesterday, the organisers decided against a redraw and chose to promote players from the qualifying tournament as direct replacement. But there will still be qualifying sessions for places in the main draw of the men’s and women’s singles and the mixed doubles.
National chief coach Yap Kim Hock said that the withdrawals of the top players in the singles event would not really have an effect on Lee Chong Wei chances to progress in the early stages of the tournament. The top seeded Malaysian will open his campaign against Sho Sasaki of Japan tomorrow.
“Taufik and Jonassen were in the other half of the draw,” he said.
Kim Hock added that the decision not to have a redraw evened up the chances of players in the lower half of the draw to progress further.
There are two Malaysians in the half – KLRC Bhd’s Sairul Amar Ayub and Nusa Mahsuri’s Mohd Roslin Hashim. Both players will start off against qualifiers.
In the men’s doubles, Malaysia still have seven pairs in the fray. Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari and Khoo Chung Chiat-Tan Bin Shen get a bye into the second round. Chung Chiat-Bin Shen will play Japanese Matsuda Keita-Ohtsuka Tadashi, who benefited from the withdrawal of the Danish pair.
Six Malaysian singles players will feature in the qualifying sessions. They are Kuan Beng Hong, Mohamed Arif Abdul Latif, Tan Chung Seang, Pei Wee Chung and Allan Tai in the men’s event and Lydia Cheah in the women’s competition.
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