Not the Wei to start

The 34-year-old Malaysian world No. 1 shuttler, playing his first match since a quarter-final loss at the Denmark Open in October, was sluggish and fell to a crushing 10-21, 16-21 defeat to South Korea’s Son Wan-ho in Group B of the men’s singles event at the Hamdan Sports Complex in Dubai yesterday.

World No. 6 Wan-ho was never troubled, surging to a 7-1 lead before easily taking the opening game.

Chong Wei, who bagged his fifth Player of the Year Award on Monday, appeared to offer better resistance in the next game. But Wan-ho upped his game a notch and took six straight points from 15-16 down to complete a sensational win in 38 minutes. It was the Korean’s second win over Chong Wei in 12 meetings. He last defeated Chong Wei in the final of the India Open in 2012.

The loss is a big blow to Chong Wei’s hopes of winning his fifth Finals title as only the two top in the group progress to the semi-finals.

National singles coach Hendrawan is, however, not pushing the panic button yet.

“It’s probably because Chong Wei hasn’t played any competitions for quite a while. He has yet to get into his rhythm,” said Hendrawan.

“He was making a lot of mistakes and wasn’t his usual self. He also didn’t looked comfortable on court.

“But it’s not over yet. Chong Wei still has another group match. We’ll discuss and come up with a strategy in order for Chong Wei to bring his game back up,” added Hendrawan.

Chong Wei will take on world No. 9 Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong today.

Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei also suffered an opening day loss after they went down 7-21, 17-21 to Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen-Kamilla Rytter Juhl in the women’s doubles in Group B.

It was, however, an easy day for Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong after Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen pulled out of the championships due to Boe’s bout of fever.

V Shem-Wee Kiong, the world No. 1, now just need to register one win against either Chinese pairs Chai Biao-Hong Wei or Li Junhui-Liu Yuchen to reach the last four from Group B. They take on world No. 9 Junhui-Yuchen today.