Koo Kien Keat is a professional badminton player from Malaysia.
Education
He began his studies at Saint Michael"s Institution in Ipoh, Perak. Later, he received an offer to go to Bukit Jalil Sports School, where he completed his secondary school studies and sat for the SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) examination.
Career
Besides being a men"s doubles player, he has also represented Malaysia in the mixed doubles event. He played in the 2004 Thomas Cup with Chew Choon Engineering They gave a strong performance during the second doubles match against Flandy Limpele and Engineer Hian of Indonesia in the quarter final round.
With Tan, Koo competed at the 2008 Olympics, reaching the quarter-finals, and the 2012 Olympics, reaching the semi-finals, and losing 2 - 0 in the bronze medal match.
The year 2010 was the last time Koo and Tan ranked Number.1 worldwide but they managed to remain in the top 5 until 2013. Due to early round exits in 2013 and a four-year title drought, Koo parted with the Badminton Association of Malaysia and became a coach for the Granular Club of Thailand in early 2014.
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.
In 2015 Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong announced that they are coming out of retirement.
Koo said that he still has love for badminton and both him and Tan both wanted to play together as a pair again and try to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics before they call it quits for good. Winning the Russian Open, Yonex Dutch Open and finishing runners up in the Thailand Open. They have also made it to 2 supersedes quarterfinals in Australia and of Korea.
The pair have been playing very well and the pair say that they are just enjoying their game playing with no pressure.
Koo Kien Keat moves very fast around the Netto areas and is adventurous with deceptive shots. He also reacts very well on fast flat exchanges.
A favourite formation is when he is on the front court and his partner, the main smasher, attacks from the rear of the court with powerful, left-handed smashes. Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong are an explosive and dynamic pair in their game style.
They came in seeded number 1 in the All England but lost in the first round to Denmark former world champions Lars Paaske and Jonas Ramussen.
After that, they beat another Chinese pair of Guo Zhen Dong & Xu Chen to reach their first ever finals in world championship. The only other Malaysian pair to reach that far before them were Yap Kim Hock and Cheah Soon Kit. Men"s doubles Mixed doubles.