Sarawak’s Adam and Alfred in contention but tournament hit by withdrawals

Posted on January 14, 2015, Wednesday   The Borneo Post

KUCHING: Sarawak twin brothers Adam Lau Yu Ming and Alfred Lau Yu Leong gave the home crowd something to cheer about at the opening day of the Yonex Sunrise Malaysia Masters badminton championship at State Indoor Stadium, Petra Jaya yesterday.

Both are through to the second round of the qualification matches.

Adam defeated Andrew Susanto of Indonesia in straight sets while Alfred’s opponent Kuan Beng Hong retired during the rubber set when the Sarawakian was leading 11-2.

This is the first time that the two 20-year-old brothers are competing in the US$120,000 BWF (Badminton World Federation) event. They only got confirmation of their participation in the preliminary round a day earlier.

Last year, both had competed in the Europe Badminton League. They are looking forward to playing in the KL Open before returning to Europe.

Meanwhile, top seed Srikanth Kidamdi from India withdrew from the tournament at the very last minute and this was confirmed by SBA secretary Haji Abdul Hadi Datuk Abdul Kadir yesterday.

There was more bad news as Indonesia’s top ladies single player Adriani Firdasari and her team mate Simon Santoso have also withdrawn from the event.

“We do not know the main reason on why these players withdrew from the event but perhaps they have good reasons because many of the world top players are expected to compete in next month’s India Open,” Hadi said. But he assured that all was not lost.

“The event is still very exciting because there are many young and upcoming players from all over the world who are competing…some of them are the ones who will be future champions.”