Muhammad Hafiz Hashim caused one ofthebiggest upsets in the 104-year history of the All-Englandchampionshipswhen he upset the top-seeded titleholder Chen Hong to winthe men'ssingles title in Birmingham on Sunday.
Hafiz's17-1415-10 win made him the first Malaysian for 37 years and thefirstunseeded player for 15 to win the title, and ended Chinese hopesofequalling their own open era record of winning four of the fivetitles.
Itcompleted what had already been a remarkabletournament for the20-year-old from Kalentan, who had previously beatentwo other seedsand avenged his elder brother Muhammad Roslin Hashim'sdefeat in thesemi-finals the day before.
"This wasrevenge," the 20-year-old confirmed afterwards. "Now Ijust want to dothe same at the world championships (at the same venuein May)."
Hafiz'ssuccess also had a hint of mimicry. Roslinhad held five game pointsagainst Chen before narrowlyfailing to make it the first time thatbrothers had met in the men'ssingles final of a major event. Hafizsaved three game points andtrailed 9-14 in the first game before goingon to his startling triumph.
UnfortunatelyRoslindidn't see all of his younger brother's triumph because he hadto leavemid-way through to get a flight to Kuala Lumpur, but Hafizsent him atext message on his mobile which Roslin received at theairport.
Hafizachieved his success byplaying as many of the rallies in mid-court andat the net as possible,thus increasingly nullifying Chen'sspectacularly dangerous airborneattacks.
Hafiz was at leastChen'sequal in the flat fast mid-court exchanges and also picked offwinnersat the net well. But even when forced to defence against Chen'ssteepsmashes, Hafiz often did remarkable things, once producing a blockfrombehind his back and once between his legs. The key moments cameafterHafiz had saved a third game point at 12-14, and pushed on to14-14.That set up a surge of adrenalin which carried him on a run ofsixwinning rallies and changed the course of the match.
Inthe second game Hafiz moved ahead from 2-2 to 5-2 and after gettingto11-6 and 14-8 proved mentally strong enough to fight offmini-revivalsfrom Chen which got the champion back to 8-11 and 10-14.
ThelastMalaysian to win the men's singles title was Tan Aik Huang in1966. Itfollowed Hafiz' achievement in winning the Commonwealth Gamestitle inManchester in August.
Therewas some compensation for the Chinesewhen later they lifted thewomen's singles Zhou Mi won a routineencounter 11-6 11-5 against XieXinfang, the sixth-seeded surprisesurvivor who in the semis hadbrought down the top-seeded world championGong Ruina.
EarlierZhang Jun and Gao Ling captured the mixeddoubles title with a 11-611-7 win over their compatriots Chen Qiqiu andZhao Tingting. Thatenabled Zhang and Gao to complete a hat-trick ofmajor titles, havingalready won the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 andthe worldchampionships in Seville in 2001.
Chinahad already beencertain of three All-England titles even before thefinal day began,having provided all the finalists for the wome n'ssinglesand doubles and the mixed doubles.
发表于 19-1-2008 09:45 PM
变色卡
千斤顶
楼主
本周最热论坛帖子
2488 
61
