KUALA LUMPUR: Shuttler Datuk Lee Chong Wei, fresh from winning a silver medal at the London Olympics, is expected to end his bachelorhood next year.
The world number two is expected to wed former national top women’s singles player Wong Mew Choo as both are rumoured to be planning to settle down after courting for more than a decade.
Datuk Lee Chong Wei who claimed that he was ready to take the plunge, however, did not give any tentative date or place for the wedding.
“Maybe I will step down next year because there are no big competitions and start planning for the wedding. I am not young anymore,” he told Bernama.
Mew Choo, 29, is now a coach at the Bukit Jalil Sports School after she quit competitive badminton last year.
“We have known each other for a long time. Sometimes I hardly have any time to dwell on the relationship so as to focus on my career and during such times it is normal to have misunderstandings,” said the former world number one.
Datuk Lee Chong Wei said he broke up with Mew Choo in 2009 when he was undergoing training in South Korea but patched up a year later and the bond have since grown stronger.
“It is normal in a relationship to go through difficult times but I do not want such issues to affect my career or our relationship,” he said.
Meanwhile, his arch-rival on court and good friend off the court, Lin Dan from China, currently the world number one, is expected to host his wedding reception next month.
Lin Dan tied the knot with former women’s world number one Xie Xinfang.
Meanwhile, in the same breath, Chong Wei admitted that it would be difficult to find Chong Wei number 2 to replace him when he retires.
“To find a second Chong Wei is not easy. At the same time to find a second Lin Dan will also be not easy for China and same to Indonesia to find another Taufik Hidayat or for Denmark to find another Peter Gade,” he said when asked for his comment on the criticism levelled on the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) for its failure
to find another Chong Wei. —
to find another Chong Wei. —