Malaysia men's double shuttlers Aaron Chia (left) and Soh Wooi Yik. - Filepic
NEVER too tired to try.
Shuttlers Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik aim to overcome fatigue to give Indonesia a run for their money in the men’s team final.
Yesterday, Aaron-Wooi Yik were sluggish in their 20-22,21-13,21-16 win over world No. 163 Terry Hee-Loh Kean Hean in the semi-finals tie against Singapore at the Muntinlupa Sports Complex in Manila.
Malaysia eventually defeated Singapore 3-0.
The other two points came through Lee Zii Jia and Soong Joo Ven in contrasting fashion.
Zii Jia outplayed Loh Kean Yew 21-18,21-12 but Joo Ven huffed and puffed to beat Joel Koh Jia Wei for 52 minutes before prevailing 14-21,21-8,21-16.
Aaron-Wooi Yik, who have played four tournaments in a span of five weeks, know that they will have to put up a better display if they are to upset the mighty Indonesians tomorrow and wrest the SEA Games team title from their arch-rivals for the first time in 14 years.
“We were losing focus towards the end of the first game, but that’s common. It happens sometimes, ” said Aaron.
“The most important is that we’re able to regroup and come back strongly. We’ve pushed ourselves despite a hectic tournament schedule but we’ll be physically ready.”
Aaron-Wooi Yik are expected to face Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto in the Indonesian tie.
Joo Ven too knows that he can’t afford to pull off another shaky performance especially when he is expected to face Anthony Ginting in the second singles tie.
Meanwhile, Zii Jia believes that the two wins against Philippines and Singapore have given him a perfect warm-up ahead of his clash against Jonatan Christie.
Jonatan is only playing in the team event as he has withdrawn from the individual competition to focus on the World Tour Finals in Guangzhou next week.
“I’ve played two matches so far and they are a good warm-up for me. I’ve not been playing much in the last one month due to food poisoning (which he suffered during the Fuzhou China Open in early November), ” said Zii Jia.
“I’m ready for Jonatan. Hopefully I’m able to get the better of him this time and give Malaysia a good start in the final, ” added Zii Jia, who has lost in all four meetings against Jonatan.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian women’s team were no match for top seeds Thailand as they went down 0-3 and settled for a bronze.