KUALA LUMPUR: Doubles shuttler Hoon Thien How has received a third shot to make good with a senior partner.

And he is bent on giving a high-level performance with Lin Woon Fui in their second tournament to­­gether at the Asian Badminton Cham­pionships (ABC), which will begin tomorrow at Suwon, South Korea.

The stocky Thien How had partnered two other seasoned campaigners — Chan Chong Ming and Ong Soon Hock — over the last two years.

And his best results were winning one local and one international tournament with Chong Ming — at the 2006 Kuala Lumpur Open and 2007 New Zealand Open.

Before pairing up with the seniors, Thien How dominated the junior scene with Tan Boon Heong and they were world junior champions in 2004.

Although the result 3-0 sounds as a rather safe win, Denmark had to fight for every single point to overcome the Netherlands in the final of the 2009 European Junior Team Championships. The match was discontinued after Danish wins in the mixed doubles and in the two singles.

Before the final started, it was expected that the Danish team had a slight advantage in the two singles, and therefore the pressure on Jacco Arends and Selena Piek was massive going into the final’s first match – the mixed doubles. Here they were to face the strong Danish pair Anne Skelbaek/Mads Pedersen.
The Danes had the best start, and they never allowed their Dutch opponents to get into the first set. The Dutch combination had a much better start of the second set, and after a set where they pairs were extremely close all the way through, the Netherlands won the set after a couple of easy mistakes by Mads Pedersen.
 
Mads Pedersen and Anne Skelbaek then got back on track as the third started, and they seemed very confident on the opening win when they were leading 19-10. But a number of good services from Selena Piek changed the momentum in the match, and suddenly it started to get very interesting. The Danish pair only got their first match point when their opponents had reached 17 points. The Dutch got one step closer when they won the next point, but the match was over after the next rally.
 
Mads Pedersen and Anne Skelbaek celebrated the win as they had already won the whole team mathc, by running around the hall getting applauses from the enthusiastic Italian crowd. But of course they still needed two wins to secure the gold medals.
 
Emil Holst from Denmark and Jordy Hilbink from the Netherlands then entered the court to play in the men’s singles.
 
Jordy Hilbink played a really great first set, where he was leading all the way to 20-16. But then he made a few unforced errors, and after rescuing five game points from his opponent, Emil Holst could take the first set 25-23.
 
The second set became just as close. But this time it was Jordy Hilbink who came back into the game after having been behind with quite a margin. 16-10 down in the second set, he won six point in a row, and suddenly Holst could feel the pressure. The players went to 20-20 again, and here Emil Holst against showed he had the better nerves, as he took the set, and thereby the match, 22-20. The Netherlands now had to win the remaining matches to clinch the gold.