KUALA LUMPUR: It was all over for Malaysia in the Korean Open Grand Prix Gold when Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin went down fighting in the men’s singles quarter-finals in Seoul on Friday.
The 21-year-old Iskandar went down to 2009 world junior champion Tian Houwei of China 21-13, 9-21, 14-21 in a one-hour energy-sapping match. 
Iskandar had hoped for a timely boost ahead of the Myanmar SEA Games with a good showing in the GP Gold but it looks like he still has some catching up to do in order to make his mark at the international tournament.
Iskandar has been named instead of Liew Daren for the SEA Games squad as coaches want to give the back-up shuttler a chance to strut his stuff on a larger stage.
Besides Iskandar, the other Malaysian representative for the men’s singles event in Myanmar is Chong Wei Feng.
