Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian shuttlers will head to Sydney to play at the Australian Badminton Open that will be held from May 26 – 31. The Australian Badminton Open is one of the 12-leg prestigious Superseries events sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) and is offering prize money of US$750,000.
Malaysia’s former world number one men’s doubles pair Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong would make their comeback debut at Australian Badminton Open, after they were grounded and were broke up by Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) in early 2014 due to a string of miserable performances. The pair played their last match together at the 2014 World Championships in Copenhagen where they went down in a hard-fought contest to Taiwan’s Lee Sheng Mu/Tsai Chia Hsin 21-14, 10-21, 19-21 in the last 16. Koo/Tan will launch their comeback in the qualifying round facing Alan Chan Yun/Reginald Lee Chun Hei of Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, Chong Wei Feng who did not get selected for the 2015 world championships in Jakarta was prepared to move forward and would continue to take the necessary steps to improve his BWF ranking in order to qualify for Rio Olympics.
“It was tough for not being able to play in the world championships, but I’m ready to move on,” said Chong Wei Feng.
“I don’t want to use that as an excuse, I need to play well in every tournament beginning with the Australian Open. Race to qualify for the Rio Olympics has started this month, and I’ll do my best to secure a chance for Rio,” added Chong Wei Feng.
Despite losing all three of their matches in the recently concluded Sudirman Cup in Dongguan, women’s doubles pair Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei were pledging that BAM would enable them to keep their partnership intact.
“We have our ups and downs, we are currently No. 11 in the world, there is still room for improvement, and we are working hard to qualify for next year’s Olympics,” said Vivian Hoo.
Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong who are the only Malaysian men’s doubles players made it to the main draw, will take on Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark in the 1st round.
Four other Malaysian men’s pairs namely Mak Hee Chun-Teo Kok Siang, Jagdish Singh-Roni Tan Wee Long, Lee Yan Sheng-Lin Woon Fui, Yogendran Krishnan-Vountus Indra Mawan will have to earn their rights to play in the main draw from the qualifying round.