TUC 2012 Day 3 – Malaysia Limped by Chong Wei’s Injury

The afternoon session of Thomas Cup 2012 today saw Denmark triumph over Malaysia in 3-2 and emerge top of their group. However, to the Malaysian team, the pain from their loss was amplified as their hero and world no 1 shuttler Lee Chong Wei is officially out of the Thomas Cup Finals due to ankle injury.

By Serla Rusli, Badzine Correspondent. Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

The highly anticipated match between first singles Lee Chong Wei and Peter Gade had to be cut short to a mere 4 minutes after the Malaysian top gun suffered from potentially serious ankle injury and had to be rushed off to a nearby hospital.

Chong Wei, who was leading the match 2-1, was trying to return the shuttle at the baseline. He landed awkwardly with the weight of his body on his foot, which unfortunately cost him his ankle. After on-the-spot treatment from tournament doctors was to no avail, the Malaysian had no choice but to call off the match.

“His ankle is so swollen. We have decided that he would not play in the Thomas Cup Finals. We want him to have enough rest before the Olympic Games in London,” Malaysian national singles chief coach, Rashid Sidek told the Star.

His opponent Peter Gade was sympathetic.

“From my view it seemed like a bad twist and Chong Wei wasn’t able to continue.  For sure, this is not the way I want to win a match and I feel very sad for Chong Wei,” said Peter Gade on his Facebook page. “My best wishes goes to him and I hope he’s back on court soon.”

After the unexpected incident, Tan Boon Heong / Hoon Thien How fought hard to gain Malaysia’s first point of the day. However, the Danish duo Carsten Mogensen / Mathias Boe proved to be too hard to stop and they edged out the match in 21-17, 21-23, 21-11.

It was then Liew Daren who managed to upset his much higher ranked opponent Jan O Jorgensen with surprising ease. He breezed through the match in 21-15, 21-13 against the Dane.

Malaysian doubles proved to be their weakest link during the day as they again fumbled. Koo Kien Keat / V. Goh Shem lost to Jonas Rasmussen / Joachim Fischer Nielsen in 18-21, 15-21.

Muhammad Hafiz Hashim managed to nick another point for Malaysia to end the day with 2-3 after a close match against Hans-Kristian Vittinghus, which Hafiz won 17-21, 21-17, 21-19.

With Chong Wei’s exit, the burden of the first singles will most probably shift to Liew Daren while Chong Wei Feng will leave the bench to fight for Malaysia.

No strike two for Denmark

The Danes’ Thomas Cup win today, however, was not repeated in their female counterparts. The Danes had to bow down to the Japanese ladies in the end as their third single Lene Clausen was no match for Eriko Hirose. Hirose aced the tiebreaker match in 21-10, 21-7.

Korea’s double sweep

Korea, on the other hand, had the upper hand in their double clash against Germany today. The Korean Thomas Cup team won 3-2 against the Germans while the defending champion Uber Cup team took on their European opponents convincingly with a 5-0 sweep.

All results HERE