MALAYSIA GPG 2011 Day 1 – Top locals fall to World Champ

The Yonex Sunrise Malaysian Grand Prix Gold has kicked off in Alor Setar with big names already involved in the qualification draw. Wang Lin went through while the scratch pair of Lee Wan Wah and Chan Chong Ming bit the dust…

By Wilson Chew, Badzine Correspondent live from Alor Setar. Photos (live): W.Chew and Badmintonphoto

The 2011 Malaysia Grand Prix Gold kicked off Tuesday in the northern Malaysian city of Alor Setar.  The event has moved from Johor Bahru, at the opposite end of the nation, where its first two editions had been held.  Alor Setar is perhaps best known as the jumping off point to the popular island of Langkawi but on Tuesday, a trickle of badminton fans stayed on the mainland to catch some excellent matches in the as-yet roomy stadium.

The mixed doubles and men’s doubles winners of last week’s Smiling Fish International Series made the trip south of the border to continue their winning ways in the qualification match day at the Yonex-Sunrise Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold 2011. Nelson Heg / Teo Ee Yi and Tan Aik Quan / Lai Pei Jing beat their opponents convincingly to make it to the first round of the main draw.

In the men’s singles category, 7 Malaysians and 1 Vietnamese qualified. Nur Azriyn Mohd Ayub, who last month won the national circuit Division 2 men’s singles title, which is for players under 21 years old, proves to be someone to look out for in the future.  He beat Koen Ridder from Netherlands.

In the women’s singles, Wang Lin came back from a long layoff and managed to stave off strong challenges from Tee Jing Yi and Lydia Cheah. However, Tse Ying Suet continues her way down since India Open by failing to qualify to the first round. However, Hong Kong still has Poon Lok Yan, who managed to beat Sannatasah Saniru of Malaysia in rubber set. Sannatasah almost nailed it at the rubber set but too many unforced errors caused the points to be given to Poon.

In the men’s doubles, the more heralded pair of veterans Chan Chong Ming / Lee Wan Wah lost to Nelson Heg / Teo Ee Yi, while Low Juan Shen / Jagdish Singh also unexpectedly lost to Jani Sant Enos / Tai An Kang. This augurs well for Malaysia to have more good men’s doubles pairs apart from relying heavily to Koo Kien Keat / Tan Boon Heong.

In the women’s doubles, 2 pairs from Malaysia and 1 pair each from Singapore and Indonesia qualified for the main draw namely Lim Chiew Sien / Shevon Lai Jamie, Marylen Ng / Woon Khe Wei, Fu Mingtian / Gu Juan and Anneke Feinya Augustine / Nitya Krishinda Maheswari.

Finally, in the mixed doubles category, we have 2 pairs each from Malaysia and Japan qualifying themselves to the tournament proper.

As for the first round, there will be 25 Malaysian players in the men’s singles category spearheaded by Datuk Lee Chong Wei. There will not be any Malaysian players from the women’s singles category but Malaysia can be proud of having 7 women’s doubles pair which includes Wong Pei Tty / Chin Eei Hui, who have made a strong comeback after Pei Tty’s injury forced her to take 6 months off.

Malaysia also have 12 men’s doubles and 8 mixed doubles pairs in the first round. The action will begin from 9AM local time onwards and most likely won’t end until at least 11pm. There will be 6 courts in action and as all matches are exciting to us and important to the player, the action is bound to be fantastic and awesome.

For complete results, CLICK HERE