It was the same venue where Malaysian mixed doubles pair of Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying won the Asian Badminton Confederation gold medal in April this year.
Six months later, they were nearly embarassed as the sibling pairing of Raj Veeran/Renuga Veeran of Australia nearly defeated the Malaysian pair in the last preliminary Group A match in the team event.
But in the end the Malaysian pair prevailed, winning 7-21,21-15,21-14 but not before being given a hard time by the Malaysian born Aussies.
Malaysia defeated Australia 5-0 to top Group A and will take on New Zealand in the quarterfinals tomorrow morning while Australia will play Singapore.
It will be a tall order for the Kiwis to even take a match off the formidable Malaysian team.
New Zealand's Joe Wu had raised concerns about the powerful tail wind being generated by the air-conditioning system.
But he will be facing a tornado in the likes of Lee Chong Wei in the quarterfinal match tomorrow and no amount of adjustment will help his cause.
“It was quite warm in here, so maybe they didn’t have it on full blast but there was a good breeze. There’s a bit to get used to and there is clearly a faster end and a slower end, so you have to adjust and hopefully we can do that again,” Joe was quoted as saying on Monday.
Joe could probably get some tips from Australia's Nicholas Kidd who had stretched Chong Wei in their clash before the World number one won 21-17,21-8.
“You cannot get a rhythm playing against him. I have trained a long time to get the chance to play aginst him and thoroughly enjoyed the experience,” said Nicholas.
“It's difficult for badminton in Australia as we have so few players with a limited budget. But it is all about developing the sport there and making the last eight helps our cause.”
Also making the last eight with relative ease was Singapore as they defeated New Zealand 5-0. Singapore will meet Australia tomorrow.
In other matches, Nigeria defeated Seychelles 3-2 while Sri Lanka trashed Jamaica 5-0.
