Hafiz can breathe easy now that Gade-Christensen’s out

Malaysia’s men’s singles shuttler Mohd Hafiz Hashim can see a clearer path in his bid for glory in the US$300,000 Korean Open following the withdrawal of defending champion Peter Gade-Christensen of Denmark.

The Open begins today at the Jangchoong Gymnasium in Seoul with competitions in three events – the men’s and women’s singles and the mixed doubles.

Second seed Gade-Christensen and Hafiz, who is the joint fifth-eighth seed, were in the same lower half of the draw.

With the Dane out because of a knee injury, Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat and South Korean Lee Hyun-il are tipped to play for a place in the semi-finals.

The 24-year-old Hafiz said that he was more concerned about his opponents in the early rounds.

“My focus now is to clear the early rounds and reach at least the quarter-finals to justify my seeding,” he said.

Hafiz opens his campaign against Nicholas Kidd of England and is tipped to meet China’s Bao Chunlai in the last eight.

“It will be great if I can create an upset. It will help me to improve on my world rankings and it will also be a boost for me ahead of the World Championships in Madrid (Sept 18-24),” said the world number nine.

Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei is the top seed and he is expected to face his first real test in the quarter-finals against Chen Yu of China.

The men’s and women’s doubles competitions begin tomorrow.