The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Saberi laments poor pitch conditions
- Malaysian too good for Brown in second round
- Asian women dominate with four ranked in the top five
| Saberi laments poor pitch conditions Posted: 19 Dec 2012 05:29 PM PST KUALA LUMPUR: The national team are unhappy with the deplorable conditions of the AstroTurf at the Al-Rayyan Hockey Stadium in Doha, the venue of the six-nation Asian Champions Trophy tournament. Malaysia, who finished third in last year's championship in China, open their campaign against Japan today. The others in the fray are defending champions India, Pakistan, China and newcomers Oman. "The turf is worn out and slippery. It's also uneven. The players are finding it difficult to play on the pitch despite training there on three occasions," team manager Mohd Saberi Salleh said in a telephone interview yesterday. He added that the team's performance could be affected by the poor condition of the pitch. "To make matter worse, it took us an hour to reach the venue from the hotel," complained Saberi, who is also the Terengganu HA secretary. To prepare for the tournament, Malaysia played a friendly against Qatar on Tuesday. The Malaysians won 8-0. "It was a good warm-up before we take on Japan," said Saberi. Saberi, however, warned his team not to take Japan for granted. "We can expect a difficult task against Japan as they are a fast attacking team. They have retained a number of players who finished fifth in the recent Champions Challenge I tournament in Argentina. "The pressure will be on us to get the better of Japan as we beat them twice in the tournament last year," said Saberi. Malaysia won 3-2 in the preliminary round and 1-0 in the third placing playoff. "We need a good result against Japan to boost our confidence for the other matches. And coach Paul (Revington) wants the team to improve their performance in every match. "Our main concern is the defence as they conceded goals when it mattered most in the Champions Challenge I tournament," said Saberi. Malaysia won the first four group matches, scoring 16 goals and conceding five. But in the semi-finals against South Korea, they trailed 4-0 and eventually lost 6-3. In the bronze medal playoff against Ireland, Malaysia were leading 3-2 with three minutes remaining. But Ireland managed to equalise to force the match into sudden-death extra-time. Ireland went on to win 4-3. "Our target here is to improve on our third placing. Pakistan and India (who finished third and fourth in the recent Champions Trophy in Melbourne) will pose a big threat to our hopes of reaching the final," said Saberi. Saberi added that regular midfielder Nabil Fiqri Mohd Noor failed to make the final 18-member squad after suffering a hamstring injury in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. "We have replaced him with Mohd Marhan Mohd Jalil," he added. |
| Malaysian too good for Brown in second round Posted: 19 Dec 2012 05:29 PM PST PETALING JAYA: National No. 2 Low Wee Wern showed she is well qualified to be Nicol David's successor. The 22-year-old put up a convincing performance to knock out Australia's Kasey Brown to reach the Women's World Open quarter-finals in Cayman Islands on Tuesday. World No. 7 Wee Wern went into the tournament half-fit, having suffered a hamstring injury in the Hong Kong Open earlier this month. But it did not deter her as Wee Wern, playing with heavy strappings on her right thigh, proved too strong for Brown, winning 11-5, 11-8, 12-10 in the second round in 35 minutes. It was world No. 11 Brown who made a better start before a series of unforced errors handed the first two sets to Wee Wern. The Australian No. 1 again came out stronger in the third, taking a 3-0 lead and holding the edge until 10-9. But the errors returned as first a tin, followed by a stroke and, finally, a scuffed shot handed the match to Wee Wern. It was Wee Wern's second win over Brown in five meetings, but it was a well-deserved one for the Penangite. Making the quarter-finals also equalled Wee Wern's previous best performance in last year's championship. She is now fired up to go one step further by making the last four. "It's always tough playing Kasey because she never gives up. I'm used to these hot conditions so maybe it was an advantage to me. "Overall, I'm happy to be able to play and win in three sets despite the heavy strappings," said Wee Wern in a text message. "Although this will be my second quarter-final appearance, I want to keep on doing better because there is so much more for me to achieve. "I'll face Laura (Massaro) in the quarters and I don't think I've beaten her recently. But I'm in good form and there is nothing for me to lose," added Wee Wern. World No. 3 and third seed Massaro of England was also in good form. She ended the fairytale run of Guyana's Nicolette Fernandes, winning 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 in 51 minutes. Second seed Raneem El Weleily of Egypt also powered through after coming back from a set down to beat India's Dipika Pallikal 7-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5. The upset of the day came from Dutch veteran Natalie Grinham who rolled back the years to stun fifth seed Joelle King of New Zealand 8-11,11-3, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7. RESULTS Second round: Natalie Grinham (Ned) bt Joelle King (Nzl) 8-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7; Low Wee Wern (Mas) bt Kasey Brown (Aus) 11-5, 11-8, 12-10; Laura Massaro (Eng) bt Nicolette Fernandes (Guy) 11-9, 11-9, 11-7; Raneem El Weleily (Egy) bt Dipika Pallikal (Ind) 7-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5. |
| Asian women dominate with four ranked in the top five Posted: 19 Dec 2012 05:33 PM PST SINGAPORE: Rapid growth has made Asia the big new destination for world golf but there's an unmistakable sense of gloom as long-standing events face an uncertain future and local talent stalls. While rich tournaments and even richer stars continue to flood east, grabbing widespread attention and making large sums for the game's elite, for the home-grown scene it's a different story entirely. A bitter turf war between two rival circuits, which has spooked sponsors and divided players, shows little sign of easing, and Asian golfers are making slow progress on the world stage with just nine listed in the top 100. China, the great new market with an ever-increasing number of courses and recreational players, is developing at a glacial rate in competitive terms with only three men ranked among the world's best 800. Asia's inter-circuit rivalry even ended up before the courts with four struggling players, who were fined and suspended by the Asian Tour for taking part in OneAsia events, winning a restraint of trade case in Singapore. Meanwhile, traditional cornerstone events are facing trouble. Prize money at the venerable Hong Kong Open was slashed to just US$2mil, and organisers went cap-in-hand for government funds to pay appearance fees for top players. The Singapore Open, touted as "Asia's Major" and its oldest national open dating back to 1961, lost title sponsor Barclays and is missing from next year's European schedule, with its future date and backers unclear. While those events hit hard times, the European and American Tours remain in a powerful position with a series of big, multi-million dollar tournaments that remain the season's highlights. The CIMB Classic in Malaysia, headlined this year by Tiger Woods, will become a full-status PGA Tour event next season – and with just 10 Asian Tour players in the field, according to current plans. The WGC-HSBC Champions, which featured just nine winners of Asian Tour events and four Chinese players at its last edition in November, has signed on for a five-year stint in Shanghai with Major-level prize money of US$8.5mil. The European Tour also bypassed both the Asian Tour and OneAsia by co-sanctioning the US$7.1mil BMW Masters, a much-criticised exhibition tournament when it emerged last year, with China's domestic circuit. But the year's most talked-about event, China's "Duel at Jinsha Lake", was unsanctioned, featured only Woods and Rory McIlroy and was over in just one day of spectator mayhem and gratuitous displays of wealth by the organisers. Perhaps not surprisingly, local players barely figured at the top tournaments and out of five European and PGA-backed events since late October, only three Asians, in total, finished in the top 10, and none in the top five. And among Asia's top performers this year, several, including Asian Tour merit winner Thaworn Wiratchant, and Thongchai Jaidee and Jeev Milkha Singh, who won the Wales and Scottish opens respectively, are in their forties. However those victories also show it's not all bleak for Asian golf, and there are other signs to cheer the optimist. In June, Beijing-born Florida resident Andy Zhang played the US Open at just 14, and China's Guang Tianlang, who is the same age and also trains frequently in the United States, is set to break the US Masters age record next year. Asians continue to dominate the women's game with four of the top five players, including world number one Tseng Yani and Park In-bee, the highest earner on this year's US LPGA tour. And just this month, Naomichi "Joe" Ozaki's Asia team won the Royal Trophy in a play-off against a European side led by Jose Maria Olazabal, who masterminded September's famous Ryder Cup victory. The men in charge of Asia's rival Tours both insist that the future is bright and that the trajectory, despite admitted problems, remains upward. Asian Tour executive chairman Kyi Hla Han said his organisation provides the "right balance" of tournaments to nurture players, adding in an email: "We are confident the future of professional golf in the region is secure." OneAsia chairman and commissioner Sang Y. Chun called Asia's development "alarmingly strong", and even held out the possibility of working with the Asian Tour to bring the region on to a more equal footing with Europe and the PGA. However for some observers, the current situation is very different from the high hopes of nearly 20 years ago, when the Asian Tour first came into being. "Some people on all sides are claiming they're working for the betterment of golf and in fact they're doing no such thing," Spencer Robinson, managing editor of Asian Golf Monthly, told AFP last month. "You just want to shake these guys, pick them up by the ears and bash their heads together and say, 'For Christ's sake, there's a big enough pie. Let's all sit down and work together'." — AFP |
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