Tan Boon Heong

Tan Boon Heong
Personal information
Country	Malaysia
Born	(1987-09-18) 18 September 1987 (age 34) Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia
Residence	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)[1]
Weight	75 kg (165 lb; 11.8 st)[1]
Years active	2004 – present
Handedness	Left[1]
Coach	Rexy Mainaky Lee Wan Wah
Men's doubles
Highest ranking	1 (11 October 2007)
Current ranking	77 (18 September 2021)
Medal record Men's badminton Representing  Malaysia World Championships 2010 Paris Men's doubles 2009 Hyderabad Men's doubles Sudirman Cup 2009 Guangzhou Mixed team Thomas Cup 2014 New Delhi Men's team 2006 Sendai & Tokyo Men's team 2008 Jakarta Men's team 2010 Kuala Lumpur Men's team 2016 Kunshan Men's team Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi Men's doubles 2010 Delhi Mixed team Asian Games 2006 Doha Men's doubles 2010 Guangzhou Men's doubles 2006 Doha Men's team 2014 Incheon Men's team Asian Championships 2006 Johor Bahru Men's doubles 2007 Johor Bahru Men's doubles 2008 Johor Bahru Men's doubles Southeast Asian Games 2009 Vientiane Men's doubles 2009 Vientiane Men's team World Junior Championships 2004 Richmond Boys' doubles Asian Junior Championships 2004 Hwacheon Boys' team 2005 Jakarta Boys' team Commonwealth Youth Games 2004 Bendigo Mixed team
BWF profile

Tan Boon Heong
Traditional Chinese	陳文宏
Simplified Chinese	陈文宏
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Chén Wénhóng Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tân Bûn-hông

Tan Boon Heong (Chinese: 陈文宏, born 18 September 1987) is a former World No.1 Malaysian professional badminton player in the men's doubles event.^[2]

Personal life[]

Tan Boon Heong is married to beautician Sherlyn Tan Yean Ling since 2016.^[3][4]

Career[]

2004-2006[]

Tan was previously paired with Hoon Thien How, with whom he won the World Junior Championships in 2004 and a silver medal at the 2006 Asian Badminton Championships.

2006[]

Nearing the Doha Asian Games in 2006, Rexy Mainaky (the Malaysian doubles coach) decided to split them up and partner Tan Boon Heong with Koo Kien Keat instead.^[2] This move, nevertheless, proved to be spot-on as this pair went on to become the Asian Games champion, winning the gold medal in their maiden outing by defeating the then Chinese world champions, Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng, in the quarterfinals, Indonesia's Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan in the semifinals, and finally Luluk Hadiyanto and Alvent Yulianto, also from Indonesia, in the finals. They are the youngest men's doubles to win gold medal at Asian Games at the age of 21 and 19 respectively.

2007[]

2007 was the best year for Koo and Tan. They became the first qualifiers to win the Superseries at the Malaysian Open.^[5] They also became the World No.1 that year. They won their first All England Open after beating Chinese pair, Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng in straight games.

2008[]

They competed at the 2008 Olympics, reaching the quarter-finals.

2009[]

At the Japan Open, Tan set the world record for badminton smashes at 421 km/h. This was done under lab conditions and recorded by Yonex representatives, and not in an official match.^[6] Later, he and Koo Kien Keat won the bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships.

2010[]

At the 2010 BWF World Championships, Tan and partner Koo Kien Keat launched themselves into the semifinals after beating Korean rivals Lee Yong-dae and Jung Jae-sung. In the semifinals they defeated China's Guo Zhendong and Xu Chen 21–14, 21–18. Tan Boon Heong and Koo Kien Keat were the first Malaysian pair to enter a World Championships final in 13 years. In the finals, they played China's Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng and lost 21–18, 18–21, 14–21. The year 2010 was the last time Koo and Tan ranked World No. 1.

2011[]

At the 2011 All England Open, Tan and Koo defeated 2008 Olympic champions Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan in the quarterfinals. They then defeated World champions Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng 21–11, 23–21. They lost to Danes and world no.1 Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen 21–15, 18–21, 18–21. In doing so, they failed to win their second All England Open title.

2012[]

Tan competed at the 2012 Olympics with Koo Kien Keat, reaching the semi-finals, and losing 0–2 in the bronze medal match to the Koreans.^[1]

2013[]

Tan and Koo suffered a lot of early round exits in 2013 and a three-year major title drought but they managed to remain in the top 5 of the world ranking.

2014[]

As of March 2014, following the resignation of his partner, Koo Kien Keat,^[7] which was due to their deteriorating performance, Tan was scratch partnered with several men's doubles players including Goh V Shem, Ow Yao Han, Hoon Thien How and Tan Wee Kiong. Following the tournament, Tan has been officially re-partnered with Hoon Thien How. In August that year, Koo returned to play his last tournament with Tan at the 2014 BWF World Championships. Their last match together was in the third round where they lost to a Chinese Taipei pair with a score of 19–21 in the deciding game.

2015[]

In early 2015, Tan announced his resignation from the Badminton Association of Malaysia. Koo and Tan announced that they are coming out of retirement and try to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics before they call it quits for good. They are currently sponsored by Seri Mutiara Development Sdn Bhd. They have achieved some breakthroughs this year. Winning the Dutch Open and runners-up in the Thailand Open. They have also made it to 2 Superseries quarterfinals in Australia and Korea.

2016[]

In 2016, Koo and Tan managed to enter the top 15 of the world rankings. However, due to the new Olympic qualification requirement set by the BWF whereby each country can send two representatives for each event only if they are both in the top 8 of the world rankings in their discipline and if they are not then only the highest ranked representative will contest, Koo and Tan narrowly failed to qualify for the Olympics.

2017[]

Tan and Hendra Setiawan debut tournament at the 2017 Syed Modi International, they managed to advance until the quarter-finals. They reached the final round at the Australian Open but were beaten by third seed Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda from Japan.

2018[]

Tan was partner with Yoo Yeon Seong from South Korea. Subsequently, he was partner with Kim Sa Rang and they play together in men's doubles in 18/19 Purple League.

2019[]

Tan was also currently training with Goh V Shem, Tan Wee Kiong, Goh Liu Ying and Chan Peng Soon after their resignation from Badminton Association of Malaysia.

Achievements[]

BWF World Championships[]

Men's doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2009	Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad, India	Koo Kien Keat	Jung Jae-sung Lee Yong-dae	21–16, 14–21, 20–22	Bronze
2010	Stade Pierre de Coubertin, Paris, France	Koo Kien Keat	Cai Yun Fu Haifeng	21–18, 18–21, 14–21	Silver

Commonwealth Games[]

Men's doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2010	Siri Fort Sports Complex, New Delhi, India	Koo Kien Keat	Anthony Clark Nathan Robertson	21–19, 21–14	Gold

Asian Games[]

Men's doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2006	Aspire Hall 3, Doha, Qatar	Koo Kien Keat	Luluk Hadiyanto Alvent Yulianto	21–13, 21–14	Gold
2010	Tianhe Gymnasium, Guangzhou, China	Koo Kien Keat	Markis Kido Hendra Setiawan	21–16, 24–26, 19–21	Silver

Asian Championships[]

Men's doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2006	Bandaraya Stadium, Johor Bahru, Malaysia	Hoon Thien How	Choong Tan Fook Lee Wan Wah	21–17, 11–21, 12–21	Silver
2007	Bandaraya Stadium, Johor Bahru, Malaysia	Koo Kien Keat	Choong Tan Fook Lee Wan Wah	14–21, 21–11, 12–21	Silver
2008	Bandaraya Stadium, Johor Bahru, Malaysia	Koo Kien Keat	Jung Jae-sung Lee Yong-dae	21–16, 16–21, 18–21	Bronze

Southeast Asian Games[]

Men's doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2009	Gym Hall 1, National Sports Complex, Vientiane, Laos	Koo Kien Keat	Markis Kido Hendra Setiawan	17–21, 17–21	Silver

World Junior Championships[]

Boys' doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2004	Minoru Arena, Richmond, Canada	Hoon Thien How	Lee Yong-dae Jung Jung-young	15–6, 3–15, 15–12	Gold

BWF Superseries (8 titles, 10 runners-up)[]

The BWF Superseries, which was launched on 14 December 2006 and implemented in 2007,^[8] is a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). BWF Superseries levels are Superseries and Superseries Premier. A season of Superseries consists of twelve tournaments around the world that have been introduced since 2011.^[9] Successful players are invited to the Superseries Finals, which are held at the end of each year.

Men's doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2007	Malaysia Open	Koo Kien Keat	Tony Gunawan Candra Wijaya	21–15, 21–18	Winner
2007	All England Open	Koo Kien Keat	Cai Yun Fu Haifeng	21–15, 21–18	Winner
2007	Swiss Open	Koo Kien Keat	Jens Eriksen Martin Lundgaard Hansen	17–21, 21–16, 21–12	Winner
2007	Denmark Open	Koo Kien Keat	Jens Eriksen Martin Lundgaard Hansen	14–21, 21–14, 21–12	Winner
2008	World Superseries Masters Finals	Koo Kien Keat	Jung Jae-sung Lee Yong-dae	21–18, 21–14	Winner
2009	Swiss Open	Koo Kien Keat	Mathias Boe Carsten Mogensen	21–14, 21–18	Winner
2009	Denmark Open	Koo Kien Keat	Mathias Boe Carsten Mogensen	20–22, 21–14, 21–17	Winner
2009	French Open	Koo Kien Keat	Markis Kido Hendra Setiawan	21–15, 15–21, 14–21	Runner-up
2009	China Open	Koo Kien Keat	Jung Jae-sung Lee Yong-dae	13–21, 21–19, 18–21	Runner-up
2010	Malaysia Open	Koo Kien Keat	Guo Zhendong Xu Chen	21–15, 17–21, 21–16	Winner
2010	Swiss Open	Koo Kien Keat	Ko Sung-hyun Yoo Yeon-seong	18–21, 16–21	Runner-up
2010	Japan Open	Koo Kien Keat	Cai Yun Fu Haifeng	21–18, 14–21, 12–21	Runner-up
2011	All England Open	Koo Kien Keat	Mathias Boe Carsten Mogensen	21–15, 18–21, 18–21	Runner-up
2012	Japan Open	Koo Kien Keat	Kim Gi-jung Kim Sa-rang	16–21, 19–21	Runner-up
2012	Denmark Open	Koo Kien Keat	Shin Baek-choel Yoo Yeon-seong	21–19, 11–21, 19–21	Runner-up
2012	Hong Kong Open	Koo Kien Keat	Cai Yun Fu Haifeng	16–21, 17–21	Runner-up
2013	French Open	Koo Kien Keat	Marcus Fernaldi Gideon Markis Kido	16–21, 18–21	Runner-up
2017	Australian Open	Hendra Setiawan	Takeshi Kamura Keigo Sonoda	17–21, 19–21	Runner-up

  BWF Superseries Finals tournament

  BWF Superseries Premier tournament

  BWF Superseries tournament

BWF Grand Prix (8 titles, 5 runners-up)[]

The BWF Grand Prix had two levels, the BWF Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It was a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) which was held from 2007 to 2017. The World Badminton Grand Prix has been sanctioned by the International Badminton Federation from 1983 to 2006.

Men's doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2006	Japan Open	Koo Kien Keat	Tony Gunawan Candra Wijaya	15–21, 14–21	Runner-up
2007	Philippines Open	Koo Kien Keat	Guo Zhendong Xie Zhongbo	21–8, 26–24	Winner
2007	Macau Open	Koo Kien Keat	Choong Tan Fook Lee Wan Wah	21–18, 17–21, 23–21	Winner
2008	Macau Open	Koo Kien Keat	Fang Chieh-min Lee Sheng-mu	21–16, 21–18	Winner
2009	Malaysia Grand Prix Gold	Koo Kien Keat	Gan Teik Chai Tan Bin Shen	21–11, 21–13	Winner
2009	Macau Open	Koo Kien Keat	Choong Tan Fook Lee Wan Wah	21–14, 17–21, 21–12	Winner
2011	Malaysia Grand Prix Gold	Koo Kien Keat	Hendra Aprida Gunawan Alvent Yulianto	21–16, 21–7	Winner
2012	Malaysia Grand Prix Gold	Koo Kien Keat	Chooi Kah Ming Ow Yao Han	21–15, 21–19	Winner
2013	Malaysia Grand Prix Gold	Koo Kien Keat	Goh V Shem Lim Khim Wah	20–22, 15–21	Runner-up
2015	Thailand Open	Koo Kien Keat	Wahyu Nayaka Ade Yusuf	22–20, 21–23, 16–21	Runner-up
2015	Dutch Open	Koo Kien Keat	Manu Attri B. Sumeeth Reddy	21–15, 21–10	Winner
2016	Malaysia Masters	Koo Kien Keat	Marcus Fernaldi Gideon Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo	21–18, 13–21, 18–21	Runner-up
2016	Vietnam Open	Koo Kien Keat	Lee Jhe-huei Lee Yang	21–18, 14–21, 7–21	Runner-up

  BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament

  BWF & IBF Grand Prix tournament

BWF International Challenge/Series (4 titles, 2 runners-up)[]

Men's doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2015		Koo Kien Keat	Chooi Kah Ming Ow Yao Han	21–19, 21–17	Winner
2015	White Nights	Koo Kien Keat	Marcus Ellis Chris Langridge	21–10, 21–12	Winner
2015	Swiss International	Koo Kien Keat	Peter Briggs Tom Wolfenden	18–21, 21–16, 21–16	Winner
2019	Perth International		Lee Chia-hao	21–17, 21–16	Winner
2019	South Australia International	Shia Chun Kang	Kim Duk-young Kim Sa-rang	14–21, 21–17, 16–21	Runner-up
2019	Dubai International	Shia Chun Kang	Keiichiro Matsui Yoshinori Takeuchi	14–21, 14–21	Runner-up

  BWF International Challenge tournament

  BWF International Series tournament

  BWF Future Series tournament

Record against selected opponents[]

Men's doubles results with Koo Kien Keat against Superseries finalists, World Championships semi-finalists, and Olympic quarterfinalists, plus all Olympic opponents.^[10]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tan Boon Heong.

• Tan Boon Heong at BWF.tournamentsoftware.com
• Tan Boon Heong on YouTube