Monday 15 March 2010

Datuk Lee Chong Wei, you made us proud in Birmingham!



Salams all,

I believed that the news of Datuk Lee Chong Wei who had won the All England's (100th Edition) men final single match tournament has been greeted with pride and spreaded like wild fire among all Malaysians either in Malaysia or abroad, especially for those in the UK. Unfortunately, I didn't watch the match live at the National Indoor Arena (NIA), Five Ways, Birmingham, as there were no more tickets available. So, we all gathered at Bro. Madi's house in Aston, and watch the match live on the telly instead.

The match started right after the women single match, which the player from Denmark (Rasmussen) had won it against her opponent from China. Back to Datuk's match, his opponent was a lesser known guy from Japan, yet he had defeated 3 seeded players en route to the final match, including Bao Chunlai from China. It was really a tense match, as each player was getting points that were not to far from each other. In the first set, there was a moment when Tago was leading at 10 - 5, and everyone of us was worried that he might win the first set, just like what he had done in his previous matches. Luckily, Datuk then managed to find his rhythm and won the set at a pulsating scoreline of 21 -19. The second set started with Datuk leading against Tago, and at one point, he seemed to win this set with ease. However, when reaching the final moment of the set, he constantly made mistakes which gave easy points to Tago. Then, the summit amounted when the scoreline was at 20 - 19, where we were all just wondering whether it will be dragged to duece points or Datuk will eventually finish the set and stop everyone's fast heart beats. Finally, Tago had misjudged Datuk's shuttle movement and he once again won the set at 21 -19. With being the favourite to win the single match from day one, Datuk really outshone in his performances. Credits should also be given to Tago, an underdog and unseeded player, but had shocked many of us by even reaching the final match. I bet he has a very bright future in front of him for years to come.


Once again, congratulations to Datuk Lee Chong Wei, you really made an impact of Malaysia in Birmingham! Congratulations to his mentor, Misbun Sidek as well...

p/s: Datuk is the only second Malaysian men single to won the prestigious All England title in 44 years, since Hafiz Hashim last won it in 2003. 

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