Maybank Malaysia Open 2012 - Part 3

[Two-in-one entry: January 14 and 15]

Saturday, January 14, 2012
Semi-finals day was, unlike usual years, as long as a horrifying 11 hours! From 10am to 11pm, as ten matches were all scheduled to play on one court only, one after the other.

Cho Gun Woo and Shin Baek Cheol won Chai Biao and Guo Zhendong in the semis. During their game, Lee Yong Dae was sitting at the front row of the players' seats, closest to the court. I caught him shouting tips to his friends when they were playing on the side nearer to the seats. Kinda sneaky the way Shin Baek Cheol walked towards the back of the court to hear what Yong Dae was saying, in the midst of the thundering cheer from the audience.

Visit badzine.net to read more.

Basically, the fact that I saw Lee Yong Dae, and that Cho/Shin and Ha/Kim made it into the finals, made my day. I wasn't as tired that day, but since my favourite pairs and Tago Kenichi(following Chen Jin's withdrawal) made it past the semis, I couldn't be sure if it was because I saw Yong Dae that I was more energetic after work that day. Though I was, indeed, not too sleepy any more once I spotted him.

Creativity of an Indonesian supporter.

Sunday, January 15, 2012
Final's day. The people I supported all lost, and that's pretty much a turn-off, but my day wasn't too bad; fortunately.

I didn't really like the idea of humiliating Dato(Lee Chong Wei)'s opponent, publicly, to show support for the local hero. Before the matches started at 1pm, there were some performances and at some point, the guys were talking about Dato and his opponent. They said something like, "His opponent's a Japanese, right? What's his name, eh? Takeshi Kaneshiro? Or...Toga[instead of Tago]?"

Tago's known to be a huge fan of Taufik and he imitates almost everything about him.
Look at that Taufik-ish backhand :D

I know that was suppose to be a joke (was it?), but I didn't really like the idea. They spoke in Malay and I kinda felt that it's quite disrespectful because Tago doesn't understand the language. But oh well, just my thought.

Tago lost, anyway. But I did enjoy the game he had with Lee Chong Wei, despite the unfair line call. I like Taufik Hidayat's style, and I love the way Tago does backhand smashes the 'Taufik way'.

Final's article. Visit badzine.net for more.

Press conferences with champions Fang Chieh Min/Lee Sheng Mu and Christinna Pedersen/Kamilla Rytter Juhl was interesting. The feature interview with love birds and mixed doubles champions Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei was funny too (ESPN did a feature interview with them, based on how well Zhang Nan knows his girlfriend. They did various interesting interviews with several players. Should be on TV next month or in March)!

Bright smiles on the women's doubles champions' faces.

In short, final's day was good- just not perfect because my faves didn't win. After work for the last day, I went home, tired and hungry; but contented. And I began to miss the week right after I left the stadium. That was soon.

After saying all the goodbyes to the people who shared the week with me, and after the final's article was published on Badzine, my exciting + exhausting + happening week ended, officially; with lots of new memories and experiences. 

Photos: Full credits to Yves Lacoix, Badmintonphoto.  
 [End of January 14th & 15th's entries]

The End.