Over the weekend, I was back in my hometown, and had the privilege of watching the live telecast of the Indonesian Open badminton tournament (my parents have Astro, I don't....anyway, they were showing it on TV1 as well). The semis were played on Saturday, and the finals on Sunday.

The singles final match-up was between Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei and China's Bao Chun Lai. To be honest, I didn't have much hope that Chong Wei could triumph over a very polished Bao. I watched the Bao-Taufik Hidayat semifinal a day earlier, and Bao was, as usual, consistently in his element.

How I was proven wrong! (and I'm glad!) He was on fire yesterday! He controlled the match all through-out, and never gave a chance to Bao to get into his game. World No. 2 Bao was beaten 21-15, 21-16.

Chong Wei's game was well-mixed, and that was a bummer for Bao because with such a variety of play from Chong Wei, Bao couldn't settle into an ideal rhythm of play. Chong Wei's smashes, drops, defence, baseline placing, etc....all were well executed. Sure, he had some mistakes and bad judgment calls littered every now and then, but he kept composed throughout.

And he was super-agressive! (kudos too to his fitness....the level of aggression that he fired out at Bao required a very high standard of fitness). I was especially impressed with Chong Wei's cross-court smashes....left me gaping in awe.

Congratulations Lee Chong Wei! You played a fantastic game, and you deserve the title. Hopefully, this can be kept up for times to come.

The Star newspaper reported that "Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif failed to make it a double when they went down fighting 17-21, 20-22 to world's number one pair of Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng of China in an exciting men's doubles final."

And fight they did. It was indeed an exciting match, with the Malaysians really giving their all. Unfortunately, it was pretty obvious that they were the less experienced of the two pairs. The Chinese pair were too good in yesterday's match....they matched the Malaysian pair’s speed at the net and across the net, and they forced the Malaysian pair to lift the shuttle back at them very often. When you play against Cai-Fu, lifting the shuttle to them is a last resort. It’s a desperate measure, when you are out of options of the kind of shots to play back to them. Cause they can really smack the feathered cock right back at you. Note: Fu Haifeng holds the world record for the fastest smash ever recorded....332kph.
(See http://english.people.com.cn/200505/14/eng20050514_184991.html)

Kudos to Fairuz-Zakry for a job well done. They are still young, and there is much opportunity for improvement. The same goes for the other young Malaysian pairs (including Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong). If they can keep up the rate of improvement, Malaysia should have world-class doubles pairs sticking around for a while.

Note to all Malaysians: let's support our players both in good and bad times. We complain about our players being inconsistent, but what about our support? The down times are when they need our support the most. So stand firm beside our fellow comrades, and let's cheer them on with a "Malaysia Boleh" spirit.