Daren and Co seek better fortune at Swiss Open

After an awfully dismal outing at last week’s All-England in Birmingham, Malaysia, led by the men’s singles shuttler Liew Daren, will get a chance to redeem themselves at this week’s Swiss Open.

Besides Daren, the other Malaysians competing in Basel are former Asian junior champion Soo Teck Zhi, Mohd Arif Abdul Latif, Beryno Wong and Zulfadli Zulkiffli.

However, Chong Wei Feng, seeded ninth, has withdrawn from the tournament, which begins on Wednesday.

“I am still not fully fit because of my leg injury. I have opted out to focus on the Malaysian Open (March 31-April 5) and Singapore Open (April 7-12),” said Wei Feng.

“Hopefully, my team-mates will be able to give a good showing,” he added.

After a topsy-turvy show this year, the 28-year-old Daren hopes to bring some cheers to the Malaysian camp.

“My draw is not too bad. It will be tough from the second round onwards. But I hope I can go one step better in this tournament,” said Daren, whose best outing at the Swiss Open was a quarter-final appearance in 2012.

“We were not fully represented at the AllEngland, but we will have a handful of players at the Swiss Open. Hopefully, there will be better results,” said Daren.

Daren should get past Austrian Matthias Almer in the opening round without any trouble. The other players in Daren’s half of the draw are fourth seed Tian Houwei of China, India’s Anand Pawar, Teck Zhi, Hong Kong’s Hu Yun and Indonesia’s Sony Dwi Kuncoro.

The top two seeded players in the Grand Prix Gold tournament are India’s K. Srikanth and Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen.

Other Malaysians hoping to come good in Basel are Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong (men’s doubles) and Amelia Anscelly-Soong Fie Cho (women’s doubles).

At the All-England, V Shem-Wee Kiong were second-round casualties while Amelia-Fie Choo failed to clear their opening match.