Tuesday saw the start of the 2019 Macau Open Badminton Macau at Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion, one of the legs on “The HSBC BWF World Tour Super 300” in which Macau’s badminton team pitted themselves against some of the world’s best “Super 300” players.
According to the Badminton World Federation (BWF) website, the HSBC (Hong Kong Shanghai Bank) BWF World Tour is a circuit of 26 tournaments attracting the top world ranked players in singles (men’s and women’s) and doubles (men’s, women’s and mixed).
The 26 tournaments are divided into five levels – Super 1000 (three tournaments), Super 750 (five tournaments), Super 500 (seven tournaments) and Super 300 (11 tournaments). Each of these tournaments offers different ranking points and prize money. The highest points and prize pool are offered at the Super 1000 level. One other category of the tournament, the BWF Tour Super 100 level, also offers BWF World Tour ranking points. Although this level is not part of the HSBC BWF World Tour, it is an important part of the pathway and entry point for players into the HSBC BWF World Tour tournaments.
The HSBC BWF World Tour Finals next month are the ultimate goal for players on the World Tour and only the top eight players in each of the five disciplines of the HSBC BWF World Tour Rankings qualify to compete in the season finale.
Macau had Ng Chi Chong and Gong Xue Xin plus Leong Iok Chong and Ng Weng Chi in the mixed doubles, Leong and Ng Weng Chi in the men’s doubles all playing on Tuesday, while Ng Weng Chi and Gong were entered in the women’s doubles and Pui Pang Fong played in the men’s singles all on Wednesday.
Pui played junior champion
MPD Weekender spoke to some of the team members and their coach Li Zhe in the lobby of Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion on Wednesday before 19-year-old Pui went off to play his game against Thai opponent Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
Pui, ranked 212nd in the world, said that he had played in quite a few international competitions and mainly plays in the men’s singles.
Pui said that he has been playing badminton for about 12 years starting with the junior level. “I played quite well at the junior level and won some prizes but to win anything at the international level is quite difficult.”
When asked about his opponent in yesterday’s match, Pui said, “I know that he [Vitidsarn] has won the World Junior Championships about three times.”
Vitidsarn’s world ranking is 76th .
Pui said, “I am feeling quite good about today [Wednesday] especially as my morning warm-up went really well. I do not fear anything, I’ll just play the best I can.”
When asked how he feels about playing at home, Pui said, “I am very happy, I think that as more friends and fans are here to support me in the stadium it will give me encouragement make me more energetic.”
Pui’s match was due to start at 3:40 p.m. on Wednesday but was delayed until 5:05 p.m. The final score was 21-9, 21-10 to Vitidsarn, but Pui fought hard despite getting slightly injured in the middle of the second game and having to receive treatment during the break.
As he had predicted there was a lot of home crowd support from the sparse amount of spectators present.
Coach sees improvement
Macau badminton team coach Li has been with the players for about a year after coaching for about two years on the mainland. When asked about the players that he is training in Macau, Li said, “They are hardworking and train hard, although they perhaps do not have enough time to train as I would like. But I have noticed a big improvement in them since I have been coaching them.”
Doubles pairs happy with results
Mixed doubles partners Ng, 21, and Leong, 17, have been playing badminton 12 and 10 years respectively and have partnered in the doubles for about four years. Although they only played one or two tournaments a year as juniors this year, they have played in three or four senior competitions. They have played in two previous super competitions, Ng said, adding: “We have not played that much as seniors because, “he [Leong] was a junior and I was a senior until this year.”
Ng is studying at the University of Macau (UM), while Leong is still at school.
The duo played Hong Kong’s Law Cheuk-him and Yeung Shing-choi on Tuesday and despite losing 21-11, 21-8 Leong said, “We played quite well and are very happy to have been playing at home.”
Ng added, “We enjoyed the game and were more motivated with having local supporters. The fans can see the effort we are putting in and that we are working really hard.”
The pair said that the result was as they expected as they didn’t know anything about their opponents but they feel that they have “improved since June”, the last tournament they played in.
Leong went on to say, “We’ll keep practising hard and next year do our best to show our local supporters”, while Ng said, “In every match we are improving on our weaknesses and we keep working hard to improve to show everyone that we are putting a lot of effort into making a beautiful match.”
Ladies doubles pair Ng and Gong, 19, who are ranked 136th in the world, were up against Kuo Yu-wen and Lin Wan-ching of Taiwan, ranked 72nd, on Wednesday morning.
Gong said, “The mixed doubles was not really my best performance yesterday, [Tuesday] I was disappointed. As it was my first mixed doubles game, I was not really confident. We have been playing ladies doubles together for a long time so I had a lot of confidence [in the match]”.
Ng said, “We are satisfied with this morning’s result [Wednesday] as previously we made many mistakes. This time we played quite well in defence and attack.”
The girls lost the game 21-15, 21-12.
Gong said, “We have been playing together since the juniors and the step-up to the seniors was quite big.” Ng added, “The players are stronger than in the juniors, they play more maturely and it is more tactical.”
When asked how they thought they were improving with the new coach, they said that he works on the basic things, he teaches the tiny things that may have been forgotten or not known. He teaches to be more alert to those things in the match and the team have improved as he focuses on the basics.
Gong and Ng said they were satisfied with their performance on Wednesday and hope that they will play better in the following years and also hope that every year they will be more and more satisfied with their performance.
Aiming for second-round next year
When asked what he thought about the overall team performance, Li said, “They used what they had learnt in training in their matches.”
In reply to what he was aiming for next year, Li said, “I want [them all] to get into the second-round next year.”
The 2019 Macau Open Badminton Macau is on until Sunday when the finals will be played.
The 2020 Macau Open Badminton Macau will take place between October 27 and November 1 next year.
Pui Pang Fong during his singles match against Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn (unseen) while his coach Li Zhe (back) watches in Tap Seac Multi Sports Pavilion on Wednesday. Photos: Lesley Wells
Pui Pang Fong watches a shot from his opponent Kunlavut Vitidsarn (front) during their singles match at Tap Seac Multi Sports Pavilion on Wednesday.
Ladies doubles players Ng Weng Chi (left) and Gong Xue Xin pose in the lobby of Tap Seac Multi Sports Pavilion on Wednesday.
Mixed doubles players Leong Iok Chong (left) and Ng Weng Chi pose in the lobby of Tap Seac Multi Sports Pavilion on Wednesday.
