Shuttlers suffer big fall after Down Under high
HONG KONG'S young shuttlers, who did remarkably well at the Australian and New Zealand Open in September, were sent crashing down to earth with quick exits from the Nin Jiom Hong Kong Open Badminton Championships.
Tam Kai-chuen, the losing men's finalist in Australia and winner of the New Zealand title, found it rough in the big league and was beaten 15-6, 15-9 by Sweden's Jens Olsson.
Kai-chuen, 19, put up a plucky fight but he was never a serious threat to Olsson, who is ranked 15th in the world and 31 places above the Hong Kong number one.
'Australia and New Zealand were one-star events, but the Hong Kong Open was a five-star tournament, attracting much stronger entries because of the bigger prize-money,' said Hong Kong national coach Chan Chi-choi.
'We have five of the world's top 10 players here, so the competition is different. Kai-chuen is not quite up to that level yet, but he is improving all the time.' Also making first-round exits were Wong Kwok-wai, beaten 10-15, 18-16, 15-12 by Italy's Gianmarco la Rosa, and Tam Lok-tin, who lost 15-10, 15-9 to Malaysia's Ismail Abdul Saman.
Indonesia's world number one Heryanto Arbi defeated compatriot Allan Budi Kusuma 13-18, 15-13, 15-4 to retain the men's title.
