Fairuzizuan and Woon Fui take centrestage, finally

KOTA KINABALU: Back-up men’s doubles pair Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Lin Woon Fui have finally stepped out of the shadows of Chan Chong Ming-Koo Kien Keat. 

On Thursday, the world number 14 pair prevented Chong Ming-Kien Keat from taking a hat-trick of national titles, playing superbly to win 15-9, 15-11. 

National doubles coach Rexy Mainaky welcomed the breakthrough by the second stringers. 

“They lost one of the group matches (against Mohd Zakry Latif-Gan Teik Chai). But they bounced back and went all the way to win the title. I commend them for their achievement,” said Rexy. 

“Fairuz and Roberts (as Woon Fui is known) can now push Chong Ming-Kien Keat to do better. If Chong Ming-Kien Keat had won, they may rest on their laurels. With the defeat now, they will be more focused,” he said. 

NEW POWER: Mohd Fairuzizuan (right) and Lin Woon Fui, the new men’s doubles national champion, are in the running for aplace in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

“This will also be motivation for the younger pair to do well in next month’s Swiss Open and All-England,” said the Indonesian. 

“I am not setting high targets for them in the European Grand Prix tournaments. I will be happy if they can reach the quarter-finals and upset top players there,” he said. 

On whether Fairuzizuan-Woon Fui would be considered for Malaysia’s major tournaments next year, Rexy said: “Yes, if they continue to make progress and stay injury-free.” 

The coach said the outing in the Manila SEA Games had provided a valuable lesson to the pair. 

“We did well in the team event (Malaysia beat Indonesia for the team gold). But we had injured players in the team and it affected our chances in the individual event.  

“We have learnt from that incident and we hope to prepare a solid team for the next year’s major tournaments,” he said. 

The major tournaments next year are the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March, Thomas-Uber Cup Finals in Japan in May, World Championships in Madrid (September) and Asian Games in Doha (December).