Wong Mew Choo

Malaysian badminton player

Datin Wong Mew Choo (born 1 May 1983) is a Malaysian former badminton singles player.

She first came to prominence in the 2003 Southeast Asian Games badminton women's singles, where she won the gold medal, along the way beating Singapore's Li Li, then the reigning Commonwealth Games Champion.

She competed at the 2005 World Championships in Anaheim and reached the second round. She managed two quarterfinal appearances, in the Denmark Open and 2005 Asian Championships. She managed to reach the semifinal of Indonesia Open, losing a tough encounter with Mia Audina. Later that year, she qualified again for the 2005 Southeast Asian Games women's singles badminton final, but had to settle for silver, losing to Adriyanti Firdasari of Indonesia.

In the XVIII Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, she helped Malaysia clinch the gold medal in the mixed team event, taking the crucial point against England's Tracey Hallam that gave Malaysia the lead 2–1. Eventually the team won 3–1 over England for the first time in Games history. However, Hallam exacted revenge in the women's singles final. In the World Championships, she reached the third round before losing to Zhang Ning. Her best achievement of the year was in the Korea Open semifinals, losing to eventual winner Zhu Lin. She also reached the China Open quarterfinals.

The year 2007 was Wong's best year. She started by reaching the finals of the Malaysia Superseries, defeating big names like Pi Hongyan and Xu Huaiwen on her way. At the All England Superseries, she beat Chinese Lu Lan to become the first Malaysian women's singles player to qualify to the women's singles quarterfinal. Lu claimed revenge in the 2007 Asian Championships. Her biggest win was at the 2007 BWF World Championships third round, where she shocked China's Xie Xingfang in straight sets to become the first Malaysian women's singles player to reach the quarter finals of the World Championships in Kuala Lumpur. However, her progress was stopped by Zhu Lin, who went on to take the title. She was beaten in the first round of the Denmark Superseries, but quickly rebounded a week later, at the French Superseries. Wong defeated higher ranked players like Wang Chen. However, Wong lost to Xie Xingfang in the semifinal. Wong, who was unseeded at the China Open Superseries and had not won any major championship since the 2003 Southeast Asian Games, delivered a brilliant performance in Guangzhou, China by beating all the top three female shuttlers from China in succession, starting with world champion Zhu Lin, two time Olympic Champion Zhang Ning, and finally world number one Xie Xingfang in three sets in the final. She became the one of only a few non Chinese (overseas Chinese) winners of the China Open. She also became the first Malaysian woman to lift an international title outside the country.

Wong started the year by reaching the semifinal of Malaysia Superseries before losing to Zhu Lin once again. She played in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, becoming the quarter finalist after her defeat from Lu Lan of China.

After getting injured at the beginning of this season, Wong returned in Swiss Open Superseries and India Open. But her achievements were not yet satisfactory. She was also chosen as the Malaysia's top women's singles player to play in Sudirman Cup. In the semi finals, her team lost 0–3 to China. In the China Open Superseries in November, Wong beat China's Wang Yihan, the world number one, in two sets, 21–18 and 21–17. However, she was beaten by Wang's compatriot Wang Shixian in the quarter finals. In December, Wong clinched her first title of the year in World Superseries Masters Finals downing Juliane Schenk, 21–15, 21–7. Many top players did not play in women's singles of Superseries Finals, allowing Wong, who was ranked 20th in Superseries rankings at that time, to participate. Wong led Malaysia women's team in 2009 Southeast Asian Games in Laos. She and her teammates won the gold medal by beating Indonesia 3–1. However, Wong failed to reach individual final as she was defeated by Thailand's Salakjit Ponsana 18–21, 14–21. As a result, Wong only claimed bronze. In 2010 Commonwealth Games, Delhi, she won silver in a closely contested final with Saina Nehwal of India, ranked No 3 in the world.

In April, Wong retired from competition, citing injuries that had taken a toll on her body. Due to her experience and service to the national team, BJSS offered her a coaching contract to become one of the women coaches.

She has an elder sister, Wong Miew Kheng who was a former Malaysian national badminton player. She also dated the Malaysian badminton star Lee Chong Wei. The duo were planning to settle down after 11 years of courtship, after the London Olympics. In year 2009, Lee and Wong announced they are no longer together during the 2009 World Championships in Hyderabad, India. However, Lee Chong Wei announced his reconciliation with Mew Choo after winning a silver medal in 2012 London Olympics. They met in 2001 at a public badminton camp when they were both back up shuttlers for the Malaysian crew. They got married on 9 November 2012. The couple had their first child, Kingston on 12 April 2013 and their second child, Terrance on 9 July 2015.