Rashid: Malaysian youngsters should adopt Wong’s attitude

 

Cool head: Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki’s attitude has impressed national coach Rashid Sidek.

 

NATIONAL singles chief coach Rashid Sidek is impressed with the way Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki handled himself en route to a hard-fought loss to world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei in the first round of the All-England on Wednesday.
The Hong Kong shuttler exuded a cool air of confidence and displayed a superb attacking game to rattle Chong Wei before losing 21-13, 6-21, 21-23.
And now Rashid wants Malaysia’s second echelon of players to emulate the 22-year-old Wing Ki’s attitude on court.
Rashid said that Wing Ki was not overawed about playing against Chong Wei and showed bravery on court.
“What I like about Wing Ki is that he didn’t put any pressure on himself. He was just enjoying himself ... and he wasn’t even demoralised when Chong Wei took the second game 21-6,” said Rashid.
“Many of our players at his age would have panicked, but he played so well. His attacking game was classy. His net shots were awesome and almost broke Chong Wei’s resolve.
“The All-England is a platform for younger players to make a name for themselves and I believe Wing Ki has made a strong impression despite the defeat.”
Rashid hopes that Malaysia’s singles players like Liew Daren, Chong Wei Feng, Mohd Arif Abdul Latif and a host of others waiting in the wings will play with more confidence.
“Our players do well in training but they only translate half of it during competition. I hope they’ll learn to relax, enjoy and, at the same time, not pull their punches during competitions,” he said.
As for Chong Wei, Rashid said: “Chong Wei was lucky to win his first round match ... he was rather unsettled but I’m confident that he’ll be focused all the way.”
Chong Wei, who won the All-England titles in 2010 and 2011, takes on Wang Zhengming of China for a place in the quarter-finals. If the Malaysian wins, he will face the winner of the match between Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh and India’s Sourabh Verma.
Meanwhile, another youngster did well yesterday when Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk upset Japan’s Sho Sasaki 21-9, 21-11 in the second round to reach his first All-England quarter-finals.
He will take on the winner of Chou Tien-chen of Taiwan and Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia.
Tien-chen and Tommy had beaten two Chinese players – Du Pengyu and Gao Han – respectively in the opening round.

The Star