By NNN-Bernama
Kuala Lumpur : Muhd Hafiz Hashim, the 2003 All England men’s singles champion, and former national shuttler Lee Tsuen Seng will start Malaysia’s first day campaign in the 16th edition of the World Badminton Championships, which begins at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil here Monday.
The other Malaysians who will be in the first round action tomorrow are men’s doubles Tan Bin Shen/Ong Soon Hock, two women’s singles, Lydia Cheah and Julia Wong and the mixed pair of Chan Peng Soon/Haw Chiou Hwee.
For Hafiz, who is seeded 13th, this is his third appearance in the World Championships after the 2005 and 2006 editions. Tomorrow, he is scheduled to meet minnow Stuart Gomez of Australia while the unseeded Tsuen Seng will be up against Petr Koukal of the Czech Republic.
In the men’s doubles, Bin Shen/Soon Hock, seeded 15th, will square off against Tadashi Ohtsuka/Keita Masuda of Japan while Peng Soon/Chiou Hwee face Waouter Claes/Natalie Descamps of Holland.
In the women’s singles, Cheah will meet Englishwoman, Tracey Hallam, seeded 16th, while Wong will battle Linda Zechiri of Bulgaria.
The newly-wed Hafiz, whose best performance in the World Championships was reaching the quarterfinals in the 2006 edition, is still struggling to win an international title since winning the All England crown, and has been displaying yo-yo performances so far this year.
His best performance this year was at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) 2007 Super Series Korea Open in January, where he reached the semi-final stage before bowing out to Chen Jin, the world junior champion from China.
As for Tsuen Seng, who is playing under the Kuala Lumpur Racquet Club (KLRC) banner, his best performance this year was in May, during the New Zealand Open when he entered the semi-finals.
The other Malaysians who will start their campaign in the first round but will play on Tuesday are Nusa Mahsuri’s Roslin Hashim who is up against Magnus Sahlberg of Sweden in the men’s singles while Tan Wee Kiong/Woon Khe Wei face Mike Beres/Valerie Loker (Canada) and Tan Bin Shen/Ooi Yu Hang, who are due to meet K.Malaythong/M.Mangkalakiri (USA) in the mixed doubles.
Also on Tuesday, Malaysia’s badminton jewel, Wong Mew Choo will battle Simone Prutsch of Austria in the women’s singles while Lim Pek Siah/Joanne Quay meet Chen Kuei-Ya/Jamie Subandhi (USA) in the women’s doubles.
The country’s top men’s singles and world number three, Lee Chong Wei, seeded second, got a bye in the first round and will be in action in the Second Round on Wednesday, against the winner of the match between Eric Pang of the Netherlands and Russian Sergey Ivlev, from the first round.
Malaysia’s top men’s doubles pair Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong, the second seeds, also got a first round bye and will face the unseeded German pair of Roman Spitko/Michael Fuchs, who also had the same luck, in the second round on Wednesday.
Choong Tan Fook/Lee Wan Wah, seeded sixth, and formerly Malaysia’s top men’s doubles pair, also got a bye in the first round and will face either the Italian pair of Giovanni Traina/Luigi Izzo or Frederic Mawet/Wouter Claes of Holland, in the second round.