Aaron-Wooi Yik stun Olympic Champions to enter semis
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 – National men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik today advanced to the Indonesia Masters semi-finals in style by ousting Tokyo Olympic champions Lee Yang-Wang Chai-Lin.
The Olympic bronze medallists, seeded fifth, were calm to execute their game plan to defeat the world number three pair from Taiwan in straight games of 21-13, 21-15 in 31 minutes at the Bali International Convention Centre.
It was the world number seven pair’s first win against the Taiwanese in four meetings.
Aaron-Wooi Yik will face Japan’s Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi, who eliminated Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark 19-21, 21-14, 21-19, in the last four tomorrow.
Aaron said the win had given them a boost in their hunt for their first BWF World Tour title.
“I think the way we played gave them a lot of pressure; we did not give easy points to them. And the shuttle today was a bit slow. We played slow shuttles in the Sudirman and Thomas Cup recently, so we are used to it,” he told BWF Media.
For Wooi Yik, a good lesson learnt during their French Open semi-finals defeat to Ko Sung Hyun-Shin Baekcheol of South Korea helped them to keep their focus until the winning point.
“I think we focused on the match and didn’t think of winning first when leading. We have learnt our lesson and it’s good. Actually after a few tournaments like Sudirman, Thomas Cup (Denmark open, French Open), it’s quite tiring. Luckily, we skipped the Hylo Open to do some conditioning,” he added.
Meanwhile, independent pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi also made into the semi-finals after ousting Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Mohd Rumsani 21-13, 18-21, 21-18 in a thrilling match.
However, they will face an uphill task against world number two Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia tomorrow.
Mixed doubles pair Hoo Pang Ron-Cheah Yee See’s campaign ended with heartbreak as the underdogs went down to world number two Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand 17-21, 9-21 in a 34-minute match.
The country’s challenge in the women’s doubles also fizzled out as upcoming pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah lost 14-21, 15-21 to world number nine Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida of Japan.
-- BERNAMA
