How good was Lee Chong Wei in Mixed Doubles?

As not many people know, Lee Chong Wei played two national ranking tournaments in Malaysia in the years 2012 and 2015. In both occasions he partnered Vivian Hoo Kah Mun. This was at the time, when he was number one (2012-03-01) and ranked 45 (2015-07-30), rising in the rankings after his suspension due to a positive doping test.

The tournaments were the MAYBANK National Circuit Selangor Open 2012:

The other was the MAYBANK National Circuit Perak Open 2015:

So he won both tournaments, winning a total of eight matches, not loosing a single game.

Among his opponents were the then 9th ranked CHAN Peng Soon/GOH Liu Ying, who later won silver at the Olympic Games in 2016, and in the second tournament Aik Quan TAN/LAI Pei Jing and Chee Tean TAN/LAI Shevon Jemie, who were ranked 41st and 42nd at the time.

So, could he have been a top mixed doubles player?

My simulation is also capable of giving a ranking of players in a certain discipline. As according to my rule of thumb, you need at least about ten matches to get a reliable estimate, so any number for Lee’s strength will not be very reliable.

The world ranking according to my simulation for the day after the first tournament is:

Rank	Strength	Matches	Name
1	24.32	98	Zhang Nan
2	24.26	102	Zhao Yunlei
3	23.20	106	Ma Jin
4	23.12	90	Chen Xu
5	22.73	14	Bo Zheng
6	22.29	92	Tantowi Ahmad
7	22.24	113	Liliyana Natsir
8	21.80	52	Tian Qing
9	21.54	96	Joachim Fischer Nielsen
10	21.36	93	Christinna Pedersen
…	…	…	…
39	16.89	4	Lee Chong Wei

Lee would be on 39th place, but with some people, who like him, only plaxed few matches. Taking only Malaysian players into account the ranking would be

Rank	Strength	Matches	Name
1	17.58	11	Tan Boon Heong
2	16.89	4	Lee Chong Wei
3	16.42	11	Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari
4	15.88	100	Goh Liu Ying
5	15.86	22	Koo Kien Keat
6	15.81	99	Chan Peng Soon
7	15.80	32	Eei Hui Chin
8	15.68	3	Choong Hann Wong
9	15.13	4	Wong Pei Tty
10	14.50	29	Hui Lin Ng

So by playing only one tournament, Lee rose to second place in the Malaysian-only ranking.

In 2015, after his second tournament, the rankings were:

Rank	Strength	Matches	Name
1	25.67	106	Zhang Nan
2	25.43	107	Zhao Yunlei
3	23.01	102	Tantowi Ahmad
4	22.84	104	Liliyana Natsir
5	22.65	96	Chen Xu
6	22.65	96	Ma Jin
7	21.44	2	Hun Pin Chang
8	20.75	38	Zheng Si Wei
9	20.64	3	Tao Jiaming
10	20.41	112	Christinna Pedersen
…	…	…	…
15	19.81	4	Lee Chong Wei

And for the Malaysian-only ranking:

Rank	Strength	Matches	Name
1	21.44	2	Hun Pin Chang
2	19.81	4	Lee Chong Wei
3	19.49	1	Tan Boon Heong
4	16.31	62	Goh Liu Ying
5	16.16	118	Chan Peng Soon
6	15.46	1	Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub
7	14.79	32	Jien Guo Ong
8	14.36	109	Pei Jing Lai
9	14.22	9	Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif
10	13.74	38	Yin Loo Lim

So again, Lee rose to second place.

With only four matches each time, Lee rose to the top of my rankings. Being on rank 39 and 15 would mean that he would have been in the top 20 or top 10 pairs respectively. But as mentioned, he and his partner only had 4 matches each time, winning all of them. Maybe the lack of stronger opponents inhibited a better ranking. It would have been interesting to see them play some of the even higher ranked pairs from the rest of the world, not just playing domestic opponents.

So we will never know how good Lee Chong Wei would have been. It would have been nice to see him change to mixed doubles, but it was not to happen. If you are interested to see him play, there are a couple of videos on YouTube, from the Malaysian tournaments as well as some exhibition matches and league games.