Badminton Video Magazine

With a starting draw packed with Filipinos you would think that more would be left at the 3rd round stage of this tournament, but unfortunately for the locals that isn’t the case. In the mens singles only one remains, Paul Jeremiah, and he has yet to play a match as both opponents withdrew. The tournament, much like last week’s in Malaysia, seems to be a testing ground for young up and coming Asian players. China has 5 players remaining at this point, and all have a decent shot at making it further. Last week’s new star, Chen Long, made short work of local player Bartolome Rodel 21-10, 21-5, and looks to be one of the biggest threats to the title here. In the women’s singles China only fielded 3 players, but all 3 are still in the draw.

We won’t be providing extensive coverage of this event, but for those of you who are interested here are the draws:

Bingo Bonanza Philippine Grand Prix Gold 2009 Draws

As I write this I am at the airport waiting to board my flight to London Heathrow, where I will connect to Copenhagen. I am planning on spending the next few weeks in Copenhagen to begin production on the Badminton Life Training Course with Peter Rasmussen. For those of you who have already joined our newsletter you have a little bit of an idea of what we are up to, however, our regular blog readers might not have subscribed yet. If you want to know more about the course sign up for the newsletter which should be on the right hand side of the website.

I will do my best to give updates from my trip for those of you who are interested. I hope to play a lot of badminton while I’m there, but we’ll have to see how much time I have available since we will be quite busy shooting the videos for the course. Denmark is truly the heart of badminton in Europe, if you do a search for “badminton” on Google Maps in Copenhagen you will find dozens upon dozens of badminton clubs in the city. This is completely foreign, and at the same time very exciting for badminton fanatic like myself.

Stay tuned, I should be arriving in Copenhagen Wednesday afternoon!

After a spectacular run at this week’s Yonex Sunrise Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold, Chen Long lost today in the final to the dominating Lee Chong Wei 21-16, 21-9. With the world championships coming up soon in India, Lee Chong Wei looks well positioned to take his first big title. The Malaysia has never won an All England, Olympic or World title, so he will certainly be gunning for this one.

The women’s singles final was a big surprise as two Chinese qualifiers faced off in the finals demonstrating the power of the upcoming generation of Chinese players. With Chen Long and others in the mens singles, the womens finalists Wang Shixian and Wang Xin are in good company. Wang Shixian won this final 21-16, 18-21, 21-10.

The men’s doubles was taken by the 2nd seeds Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong as they defeated their teammates Gan Teik Chai and Tan Bin Shen 21-11, 21-13. In the women’s doubles it was China’s Ma Jin and Wang Xiaoli. Finally in the mixed doubles the crowd was certainly disappointed as the Chinese pair of Zheng Bo and Ma Jin won by default over their teammates Xu Chen and Zhao Yunlei.

Yonex Sunrise Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold 2009 Draws

After a good run at last week’s Indonesia Super Series Taufik Hidayat was upset by Chen Long, a young Chinese upstart. Chen won the match in 3 close games, 21-14, 20-22, 21-19. Following his win over Hidayat, Chen then defeated India’s Arvind Bhat very quickly 21-5, 21-11.

Elsewhere in the draw it seems another Chinese youngster, Zhou Wenlong, was unable to emulate Chen Long’s success as he was easily defeated by Lee Chong Wei 21-18, 21-4. Lee seems to have an ability to absolutely destroy even the best of players on his good days.

Also of note is Lee’s teammate Wong Choong Han who has also made it to the quarter-final stage, but he has yet to truly be tested. He knocked out another Malaysian, Kuan Beng Hong, 21-19, 21-16. Now he plays the Chinese qualifier Gao Huan who will no doubt be tired after playing extra rounds.

In the women’s singles India’s Saina Nehwal fresh off of her win last week dodged a bullet against Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand winning in 3 close games to book her place in the quarter finals against a Chinese qualifier Wang Xin.

Something I have noticed in the women’s singles is now that Zhang Ning has retired it seems as though this event is much more open to other competitors. No doubt this will make the event much more interesting to the fans.

In the men’s doubles there are 5 out of 8 pairs representing Malaysia. Good results for Malaysia, but it probably has more to do with the small numbers of big names in contention here.

Stay Tuned for more updates from the Yonex Sunrise Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold 2009.

Yonex Sunrise Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold 2009 Draws

Preparing to compete in tournaments is something that most players place far too little importance on. You can’t really lift your performance much by preparing well for a tournament, but by not preparing you most certainly can bring down your performance. Here are some tips on how you can prepare for tournaments to make sure that you are as comfortable as possible thus ensuring the best performance possible.
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The draws have been released for this weeks Gold Event in Malaysia with four of last weekends Super Series winners in their relevant draws.

One week after Lee Chong Wei and Taufik Hidayat met in the Indonesian Super Series Mens Final, they have the chance to play one another in the final in Malaysia. The finalists of last weekends Super Series Final have been seeded 1 and 2 for this weeks Malaysian Open.

Lee Chong Wei starts against Zi Liang Derek Wong of Singapore; Taufik Hidiyat starts against Chen Long of China. Saina Nehwal looks to continue her excellent recent form and has been seeded second in the Ladies Singles. The Malaysian pair of Eei Hui Chin and Pei Tty Wong have been seeded 1 in the Ladies Doubles and have a bye into the second round on Thursday evening.

Kido and Setiawan would have look to put their recent poor defeats in the Super Series to rest as they are top seeds for this event but have pulled out before the event. Ma Jin and Zheng Bo are competing and the second seeds have received a bye to the Round of 16 without going onto the court.

Qualifying Begins on Tuesday, with the main draw beginning on Wednesday.

Yonex Sunrise Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold 2009