PETALING JAYA: Former world champion Hendrawan made his first appearance in an international tournament as the Malaysian singles coach at the Macau Open badminton championships yesterday.
And the Indonesian saw four of his six charges — Tan Chun Seang, Mohd Arif Abdul Latif, Liew Daren and Kuan Beng Hong — crash out in the first round.
Chun Seang went down to Kashyap Parupalli of India 16-21, 20-22 while Mohd Arif Abdul Latif fell to China’s reigning world junior champion Wang Zhengming 20-22, 9-21.
There was no joy for Hendrawan as he watched Beng Hong go down 8-21, 21-19, 18-21 to Chinese youngster Gao Huan after fighting for 57 minutes.
And Malaysian Open quarter-finalist Daren also failed to get the better of 10th seed Arvind Bhat of India and was beaten 21-17, 11-21, 9-21 in 45 minutes.
It was Wei Feng who halted the losing run by beating 12th seed Andrew Smith of England 21-17, 21-11.
Mohd Hafiz Hashim, who is also under the charge of Hendrawan, also made a winning start by beating Thailand’s Pakkawat Vilailak 21-13, 21-14. Hafiz will be up against Taiwanese Lin Yu-jui while Wei Feng has a tough second round match against Du Pengyu of China.
World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei, who had a change of mind about competing in Macau, cruised to a 21-9, 21-6 win over fellow Malaysian Chiang Jiann Shiarng.
However, Chong Wei, who failed to live up to expectations in the world championships in Hyderabad last week and was beaten by Indonesian Sony Dwi Kuncoro in the quarter-finals, faces a tricky test against Zhengming today.
Zhengming has the potential to dash Chong Wei’s hopes to reach the Macau Open final for the second successive year. He had upstaged his seniors in the national team, Lin Dan and Bao Chunlai, to win the Chinese National Games earlier this year.
Also through to the second round are China’s Chen Long and Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat.
Chen Long beat Anup Sridhar of India 21-12, 21-15 while Taufik began his title defence with a 21-19, 21-15 win over Macau’s Chan Io Chong.
Four other Malaysian singles players — Beryno Wong, Chan Kwong Beng, Sairul Amar Ayob and fourth seed Wong Choong Hann — also won their matches.
Veteran Choong Hann chalked up an easy 21-10, 21-9 win over Hong Kong’s Tam Chui Hei and he will take on South Korean Jang Young-soo today.
