KUALA LUMPUR: Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari will feature in the mixed doubles again with Wong Pei Tty after a lapse of two years but it is in the men’s doubles with Mohd Zakry Latif that he will be gunning for glory in the All-England in Birmingham next week.
In the mixed doubles, Fairuzizuan-Pei Tty will have to earn their place in the main draw from the qualifying tournament.
Fairuzizuan teamed up with Pei Tty to win the bronze medal at the 2006 Doha Asian Games. Their last tournament was the Asian Badminton Championships in 2007.
He has to put in extra effort on court and in physical training to sustain a high level of fitness to play dual roles but he is not complaining.
“The South Koreans play the mixed doubles as well and it keeps them sharp,” said Fairuzizuan.
“The men’s doubles is still my priority but I have been training regularly in the mixed doubles as well. The draw for the All-England mixed doubles is relatively quite okay. We can get into the main draw and there is a chance for us to reach the quarter-finals.”
Making the tournament proper will give them a first-round match against another qualifying pair and they have Thailand’s Sudket Prapakamol-Saralee Thoungthongkam next in the path.
Fairuzizuan also harbours hopes of getting his men’s doubles season with Zakry off to a fine start. They did not feature in the Malaysian and Korean Opens last month because Zakry was nursing a knee injury sustained in the Super Series Masters Finals in Kota Kinabalu last December.
Olympic champions Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan are now likely to skip the All-England as the former is reported to be struggling to recover from a knee injury. If the Indonesian world number two pair withdraw, it will brighten the chances of Fairuzizuan-Zakry to make the final.
Fairuzizuan-Zakry have been drawn in the same half as the top seeded Indonesians, whom they have not beaten before.
Fairuzizuan-Zakry begin their campaign against Yonathan Dasuki-Rian Sukmawan of Indonesia and are expected to meet Anders Kristiansen-Simon Mollyhus of Denmark in the second round before a likely quarter-final clash against England’s Nathan Robertson-Anthony Clark.
“I am confident we can qualify for the quarter-finals but it will be tougher from there,” said Fairuzizuan, whose best achievement in the All-England was reaching the semi-finals with Lin Woon Fui in 2006.
“Our target is to live up to our billing as the fourth seeds but if the Indonesian top pair are out, it’s good news. Right now, our focus is on keeping fit. We have to trim excess weight. Both of us have not played in a tournament this year and we have gained a kilogramme each. But this should not be a problem.”