And Malaysia’s singles chief coach
Rashid Sidek sees Taufik as a dangerous No. 1 ranked singles player in
the Indonesian team even though he had been out of their national
training centre for more than a year.
Indonesia will have to
come through to the Finals from the Asian Zone qualifying tournament in
Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, from Feb 22-28.
The tournament offers two tickets to the Finals to be held at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil from May 9-16.
Besides
Taufik, who is now the highest ranked Indonesian at No. 4 four in the
world, the other singles players in the team are Sony Dwi Kuncoro,
Simon Santoso and Tommy Sugiarto. Their doubles pairs are Markis
Kido-Hendra Setiawan, Yonathan Suryatama Dasuki-Rian Sukmawan and Mohd
Ahsan-Alven Yulianto.
Indonesia are the top seeds in the
tournament offering four places to the 12-team Finals ahead of Japan,
India and Taiwan while South Korea are unseeded.
Rashid said
that besides defending champions China, who are automatic qualifiers
for the Finals together with hosts Malaysia, Indonesia could now boast
of having a formidable singles line-up.
“It is now confirmed
that Indonesia will bank on Taufik to psyche up the team. He has the
experience and will be the trump card as the first singles player. They
can also fight strongly for points in the second and third singles,” he
said.
With a formidable line-up in the doubles too, Indonesia
look good in their bid to regain the Cup they last won in Guangzhou in
2002.
As far as Malaysia are concerned, Rashid is resigned to
the fact that world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei will be heavily depended to win
a point.
In the just concluded National Grand Prix Finals, Chong
Wei nailed the men’s singles title for an eighth consecutive time and
none of the back-up players came to the fore.
“We are still
keeping the door open in the selection of singles players for the
Thomas Cup Finals. We have two more months to decide on the team. We
will consider our independent players if they show results,” said
Rashid.
Those in the national team available for selection are
Mohd Hafiz Hashim, Chong Wei Feng, Chan Kwong Beng and Tan Chun Seang.
And independent player Wong Choong Hann is also ready to take up the
challenge.
*Asian Zone qualifiers
Thomas Cup (four berths to Finals): 1. Indonesia, 2. Japan, 3. India, 4. Taiwan.
Uber Cup (three berths to Finals): 1. South Korea, 2. Japan, 3. Indonesia, 4. Hong Kong.
Courtesy of The Star
