Class act: Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian (back) and Rian Ardianto in action against Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik in the semi-finals. — GLENN GUAN/The Star
HOW to be as dominant as Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto?
That’s the lesson that national men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik will have to learn and master after losing 14-21, 21-19, 10-21 in 50 minutes to the Indonesians in the semi-finals of the Malaysian Masters yesterday.
It was Aaron-Wooi Yik’s third straight loss to the world No. 5 pair this year – having also lost at the same stage in the Thailand and Swiss Opens.
Before that, Aaron-Wooi Yik had Fajar-Rian under their thumb, having beaten them in all three previous meetings in 2019 – the Malaysian Masters, All-England and China Open.
In fact, Fajar-Rian have still remained unbeaten against all Malaysian pairs this year.
Wooi Yik acknowledged that their opponents had improved a lot since those defeats in 2019.
“Earlier, we had never lost to them but this year, they keep beating us... they have improved so much,” said Wooi Yik.
“This defeat is a lesson for us. We need to learn from them and analyse their game well. Both are really stable and it’s not easy to find the spaces against them.
Aaron knew they had blown away their chances after leaving a big gap in the rubber game.
“We had tried our best but in the third game, we were playing against the wind and found it hard to defend against their attacks,” said Aaron.
“We made some unforced errors too and could not catch up after conceding a big lead,” he lamented.
With the loss, Aaron and Wooi Yik’s wait for a World Tour title continued.
“We can’t say that we are not doing well or are not consistent because we have reached a few semi-finals and one final this year. The title is the only thing missing for us,” said the 25-year-old Aaron.
“We still believe that we just need a breakthrough and then we will win more titles.”
Last week, the duo also lost in the semi-finals of the Malaysian Open.
The duo will be out to shrug off their double disappointment at home and seek better fortunes at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham from July 28-Aug 8.
Meanwhile, in the women’s doubles, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah found China’s world No. 1 Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan too hot to handle and lost 10-21, 19-21 in 43 minutes in the semi-finals.
“They pressured us really well and we made a lot of simple mistakes. We could not cope with their speed. So, these are the aspects that we need to go back and analyse and improve on,” said Pearly.
Chipped in Thinaah: “During the second game, we regained our attacking rhythm but it was not enough.”
