SELANGOR OPEN – A fairytale run with a certain Prince Charming

Malaysia’s recent Selangor Open boasted a stellar cast for a national-level tournament in the run-up to the All England in an Olympic year, but even more interesting were some of the winners.

By Kira Rin, Badzine Correspondent.  Photo: Badmintonphoto (archives)

With more than a month between the Malaysia Open and the All England, all the best badminton players from around the world have of course been spending most of their time training intensively for a coveted chance to gain one of the oldest and most prestigious titles. The great Lee Chong Wei is no exception, as he has to put in hard work to maintain his world no.1 position.

His idea of a warm-up to the All England was a little unusual though. During the Malaysia Selangor Open that just concluded, Chong Wei skipped his dominant discipline to partner Vivian Hoo in mixed doubles. The story even had a fairytale ending as the partners were able to stroll through the whole draw without dropping a game and took the title home, beating 2010 Asian Champions Chan Peng Soon / Goh Liu Ying 21-15, 27-25.

Vivian grabbed yet another title in the women’s doubles alongside regular partner Woon Khe Wei while long time men’s doubles partners Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong shared Chong Wei’s crazy idea and split up to take on different partners.  It was Koo who was able to take home the men’s doubles title, winning it with partner Lim Khim Wah.

On the singles side, Lydia Cheah was able to push Tee Jing Yi to a 3-game match before taking the decider 21-14, while veteran Chong Wei Feng also took 3 games to beat upcoming Iskandar for the men’s singles title.

A Division 2 was also held to let the junior players prove themselves, and hopefully become future badminton stars.

This Selangor open will probably serve as a warm-up for players such as Vivian Hoo and Chong Wei Feng who will be participating later on at the German Open soon and for top players like Lee Chong Wei preparing for the upcoming All England.

All results here