Malaysians run out of steam in Denmark

2009/12/29

K.M. Boopathy
boopathy@nst.com.my

AFTER celebrating a White Christmas in Denmark, the Malaysian badminton players had a black day on Sunday.

They had a bad start at the Copenhagen Masters with Chong Wei Feng, Lydia Cheah and men's doubles Mak Hee Chun-Tan Wee Kiong suffering defeats in group matches.

Wei Feng is out of the tournament after losing to the Netherlands' Dicky Palyama (21-14, 21-13) and to Denmark's Peter Gade Christensen (21-7, 21-11) in Group A.

Lydia lost 21-15, 21-10 to Tine Rasmussen of Denmark. With the women's singles only having four players, they moved to the semi-finals which were played late last night. Lydia was to play the Netherlands' Yao Jie while Tine was up against Ella Diehl of Russia.

Hee Chun-Wee Kiong were beaten 21-16, 21-16 by Denmark's Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen and were playing veteran Danish pair Lars Paaske-Jonas Rasmussen last night.

Paaske-Rasmussen did well to defeat Olympic champions Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan 21-12, 21-18 and the Indonesians were facing Boe-Mogensen in the knock-out stages, also in a late match.

RESULTS -- Men's Group A: Dicky Palyama (Ned) bt Chong Wei Feng (Mas) 21-14, 21-13; Peter Gade Christensen (Den) bt Chong Wei Feng (Mas) 21-7, 21-11.

Group B: Jan Jorgensen (Den) bt Marc Zwiebler (Ger) 21-17, 21-12.

Doubles Group A: Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen (Den) bt Mak Hee Chun-Tan Wee Kiong (Mas) 21-16, 21-16.

Group B: Lars Paaske-Jonas Rasmussen (Den) bt Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan (Ina) 21-12, 21-18.

Women's Singles Group A: Tine Rasmussen (Den) bt Lydia Cheah (Mas) 21-15, 21-10.

Group B: Yao Jie (Ned) bt Ella Diehl (Rus) 19-21, 21-16, 21-14.

Mixed Doubles Group A: Thomas Laybourn-Kamilla Rytter Juhl (Den) bt Nova Widianto-Lilyana Natsir (Ina) 21-12, 24-22.

Group B: Robert Mateusiak-Nadiedza Koatiuczyk (Pol) bt Anders Kristiansen-Christinna Pedersen (Den) 21-14, 21-13.