PETALING JAYA: Indonesian men’s doubles shuttlers under the guidance of Herry Iman Pierngadi were known for their entertaining style of play.
Herry not just turned the likes of Kevin Sanjaya-Marcus Fernaldi and Mohd Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan into serial winners but also entertainers on court.
And now Herry is weaving his magic with Malaysian players as he seeks to implement his dynamic style and turn the likes of Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun into world beaters.
Herry, who replaced Tan Bin Shen as the men’s doubles head coach in February, played an important role in setting up an all-Malaysian final between Aaron-Wooi Yik and Wei Chong-Kai Wun in the Malaysian Masters, which the latter won.
Both world No. 3 Aaron-Wooi Yik and their world No. 8 teammates played with aggression and intelligence in the tournament to ensure that the title will go to a home pair a day before the final much to the delight of a capacity crowd at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.
Twelve years ago Goh V Shem-Lim Khim Wah defeated Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong in an all-local final in the meet.
Herry was pleased with his pairs’ showings and believed that his charges were slowly adapting under him and were starting to play like the Indonesian players under his watch before this.
“The training programme that I have implemented here (Malaysia) is similar to the one I had in Indonesia,” said Herry.
“Our players are playing similar to the style of Indonesians now. This is my evaluation and the Malaysian fans are free to make their own assessment.
“Overall, I’m happy with the performance of our players in this tournament. Aaron-Wooi Yik and Wei Chong-Kai Wun made it an all-Malaysian final which is a good achievement.”
Herry was also satisfied after Wei Chong-Kai Wun turned in their best performance since he started coaching the duo.
The pair captured the Indonesian Masters title in January but experienced a downturn after that before Herry helped the duo regain their best form at home.
Wei Chong-Kai Wun lost in the early rounds in the Orleans Masters, All-England, Asian Championships and Thailand Open before the Malaysian tourney.
“After Indonesia, Wei Chong-Kai Wun’s form went down in the next few tournaments. We watched videos of them and I pointed out to them the difference in how they played in Indonesia and the other tournaments,” said Herry.
“I did analysis and we realised where they went wrong and could come up with a good game plan for them. They managed to play their best under me from the first round until the final here.”
Wei Chong-Kai Wun and Aaron-Wooi Yik will next turn their attentions to the Singapore Open which starts on Tuesday (May 27).
The former have been drawn to face Taiwan’s Chen Zhi-ray-Lin Yu-chieh in the first round while the latter will take on Denmark’s Rasmus Kjaer-Frederik Sogaard.
