Seeking Thai glory

Long delay: Aaron Chia (left) and Soh Wooi Yik have not featured in an international competition since the All-England in March.

PETALING JAYA: National No. 1 men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik aim to win at least one of the two upcoming Thailand Opens to get the year off to a roaring start. The world No. 9 believe they have done enough ground work during training to improve on their defensive game to face some of the world’s best in the back-to-back tournaments slated from Jan 12-17 and Jan 19-24 respectively.

The events in Bangkok will be their first-two tournaments since their quarter-final appearance at the All-England in March.

Their conquerors, the fast-attacking and world No. 1 Marcus Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya, exposed the Malaysians’ weakness in defence as the Indonesians romped home for a 21-17,21-19 win.

“The last few months have been the hardest for us in training. To keep training without having a chance to test ourselves have been tough, ” said the 23-year-old Aaron.

“We are so excited to compete in the Thai meets as we’ll get to show what we’ve improved on in training and one of the areas is our defence.”

Aaron admitted that they still have some catching up to do with top seeds Marcus-Kevin and the tournament’s seven other seeded pairs – Indonesia’s Hendra Setia-wan-Mohd Ahsan, Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto (6); Li Junhui-Liu Yuchen of China (3); Japan’s Keigo Sonoda-Takeshi Kamura (4) and Endo Hiroyuki-Yuta Watanabe (5); Taiwan’s Wang Chi-lin-Lee Yang (7); and South Koreans Choi Solgyu-Seo Seung-jae (8).

“On paper, the Indonesians and Japanese are strong but all other seeded pairs are equally tough too, ” he said.

“I’ve also been working on my fitness and maintaining my ideal weight. Hopefully, all our hard work will translate into a good result. Our goal is to start the year by winning at least one of the titles in Thailand.”

Aaron-Wooi Yik, who train under coach Flandi Limpele, are one of four Malaysian pairs who will head to Bangkok.

The 2019 All-England runners-up will be joined by their Badminton Association of Malaysia teammates Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani and independent pairs Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong and Teo Ee Yi-Ong Yew Sin.

Aaron-Wooi Yik, the 2019 Philip-pines SEA Games gold medal winners, have yet to win a big tournament although they have shown great potential over the last two years.

With all the world’s best ready to strut their stuff in Thailand, it will be an ideal platform for Aaron-Wooi Yik to justify their status as the country’s most reliable pair.