By RAJES PAUL
KUALA LUMPUR: Indonesia are testing out new scratch combinations in the Asian Badminton Championships (ABC) in a bid to form solid doubles pairings at the Thomas Cup Finals.
And Malaysia’s back-up doubles shuttler Mak Hee Chun does not want to be the first victim of their experiment.
Hee Chun and his partner, Tan Wee Kiong, are drawn to play Bona Septano-Rian Sukmawan in the opening round of the ABC meet, which will be held in New Delhi from April 12-18.
Hee Chun said this year’s ABC would be very competitive as many players wanted to impress their coaches and win places for the Thomas Cup Finals, which will be held at Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil from May 9-16.
“Bona’s regular partner is Mohd Ahsan while Rian Sukmawan usually plays with Yonathan Suryatama Dasuki. This time, they have swapped partners,” said Hee Chun.
“Indonesia are certainly not leaving any stones unturned in their preparation for the Finals.
“This experiment will be invaluable to them. The outing in New Delhi will give them a good idea on who they want to gamble on at the Finals.
“But the ABC meet is also important for us (Hee Chun-Wee Kiong). We also want to impress our coaches to win tickets for the Finals. We will give our best to get the better of the Indonesian scratch pairs.”
If Hee Chun-Wee Kiong clear the opening round hurdle, they are likely to take on the winners of the match between Indonesia’s second ranked pair Luluk Hadiyanto-Joko Riyadi and eighth seeds Kenichi Hayakawa-Kenta Kazuno of Japan next.
“The draw is certainly not too favourable for us. It just gets tougher at every round. I lost in the first round at the last ABC meet and I do not want a repeat.”
Hee Chun-Wee Kiong are one the three Malaysian pairs at the ABC meet who are in the running for the Finals spot. The others are Ong Soon Hock-Hoon Thien How and Lim Khim Wah-Chan Peng Soon.
Currently, only seniors Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong are assured of their places while Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif are still under consideration.
Hee Chun said the training regime under coach Tan Kim Her over the last one week had been good.
“It is quite systematic and he demands a lot from us. Wee Kiong and I are motivated to do well,” he said.
“Currently, Soon Hock-Thien How have a better chance to be selected for the Finals but we are not throwing in the towel yet. This is our last chance to be considered for the team event and we will give our best.”
The other prominent pairs in the same top half with Hee Chun-Wee Kiong are top seeds Chen Hung-ling-Yu Lang-lin of Taiwan and South Koreans Sang Hoon-han-Hwang Ji-man.
Indonesia’s second scratch combination of Ahsan-Yonathan are in the lower half of the draw with two other Malaysians – Soon Hock-Thien How and Goh Wei Shem-Teo Kok Siang – South Koreans Cho Gun-woo-Yoo Yeon-seong and second seeds Hirokatsu Hashimoto-Noriyasu Hirata of Japan.
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