Malaysia win Asian Zone title

Dev S Sukumar

Jaipur, 19 February: China had better beware. Malaysia is going to be a handful at the Thomas Cup finals in Japan later this year.

In an engrossing Asian Zone final here on Sunday, a youthful Malaysian contingent pulled off a win over South Korea to affirm themselves as the hottest competitors to holders China.

Misbun Sidek, Malaysia’s most famous badminton name, is staking out the territory, and he has China in his sights. Even before the final started, Misbun let it be known that he was grooming three players – Hafiz Hashim, Lee Chong Wei and Kuan Beng Hong – in different styles to counter the current international trend of all-round play. “I think we have a good chance against China for the Thomas Cup,” he said with quiet confidence.

The evidence was out against Korea. Lee Chong Wei destroyed All England runner-up Lee Hyun Il, Hafiz Hashim played a magnificent match against Park Sung Hwan, and Kuan Beng Hong clinched the title for them after both Malaysian doubles teams faltered.

The match of the tournament was Hafiz against Park. Having seen the first doubles go to Korea, Hafiz treated the crowd to a spectacular exhibition of badminton; his peculiar flicks at the net and graceful movement around the court giving glimpses of the talent that won him an All England title.

Park, though, pulled off a tight first game, as got sluggish towards the end. It looked like an easy second game for the Korean.

But Hafiz somehow kept apace, his trickery at the net catching the Korean time and again. It was finally down to the third game, and Hafiz rocketed ahead 13-2 as the exhausted Korean made error after error. A 21-7 final game gave the Malaysians a 2-1 lead, after which the Koreans equalized in the second doubles. It was finally left to the explosive Kuan Beng Hong, who reached the final of the Asian Badminton Confederation championships in Hyderabad last September, to finish off things for the Malaysians.

Earlier, India fell to Indonesia for the third place playoff, but Indian No.2 Arvind Bhat created a sensation by nailing Simon Santoso in straight games.

Placings: Thomas Cup: 1-Malaysia 2-Korea 3-Indonesia 4-India
Uber Cup: 1-Korea 2-Chinese Taipei 3-Singapore 4-Hong Kong