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It has been a really interesting week with two major sports events going on. One is of course the first grand slam of the year Australian Open, and another is a somewhat less well know but still managed to attract some attention especially in Malaysia - Proton Malaysia Open 2008. Just in case you don’t know, Malaysia Open is a badminton super series event also which grants points for players to qualify for Olympics.

Anyway, I went for the semi finals which was held in Putra Stadium, Bukit Jalil. Traffic was surprisingly smooth as there were not many cars at all.

That’s Putra Stadium, a popular place for badminton events other than the one in Cheras. Surprisingly, this place was not happening at all, in fact was a little quite, for a second I wondered if I went to the wrong place!

The hall housed four badminton courts, and as usual the podium was also already setup. The podium was flanked by two newly launched Proton Saga. Proton was the major sponsor of this event, obviously. Out of the 4 courts, only 2 in the middle were opened for play. Too bad, my seat was closer to the second court which was not the televised court, so naturally they allocated less exciting games to be played here.

Thailand number 1 mixed doubles, Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam versus a relatively new pair from China, He Han Bin and Yu Yang. I thought the Thais had the edge as they were more experienced, but at the end the Chinese won after a tightly contested match. Yu Yang were awesome at the net with her delicate touches to setup opportunities for her partner to put the shuttles away with sharp smashes.

Now, let’s get back to Malaysian players. Wong Mew Choo who overpowered Eriko Hirose played against Zhu Lin from China. WMC who was spotting a light pink top with gray bottom was really elegant. Anyway, the match ended fairly quickly in straight sets as the Chinese player was obviously a couple of ranks above our player.

No luck on my seating. I was at the far end of the hill and couldn’t get a nice focus for the pictures. Seriously, I need a DSLR camera for outings like these! Hope by the end of the year DSLR prices will drop in the same magnitude like how gas prices are rising…

The crowd went crazy when the MC announced that our Malaysian champion Lee Chong Wei were to play next! Almost everyone cheered and ushered him to come on court. He played against Chen Yu from China. Let’s fast forward a little. The match ended fairly quickly also just like how Zhu Lin won her match. LCW had some great advantage over his opponent with his delicate net play and trick shots. Chen Yu was fooled on more than one occasions. I really love LCW’s tricky plays!

OK, now I shall spare you from my boring commentaries and allow you to enjoy the following videos.

Tags: badminton, malaysia open