Last four blues: Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik in action against England’s Ben Lane-Sean Vendy in the men’s doubles semi-finals.— Bernama
DOUBLES pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik suffered a fresh blow after their hopes of winning the gold medal were dashed when they were stunned 21-18, 17-21, 4-21 by homesters Ben Lane-Sean Vendy in the semi-final at the National Exhibition Centre yesterday.
It was sweet revenge for Lane-Vendy who had lost to Aaron-Wooi Yik in the mixed team semi-finals.
It was also the world No. 19 English pair’s first ever win over the Malaysian world No. 6 after four losses.
Wooi Yik had to get treatment for his knee in the third game but national doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky confirmed that it was not a serious injury.
“Wooi Yik’s knee was bleeding and he had to get treatment but it wasn’t serious,” said Rexy.
When asked on the pair’s performance in the semi-finals, the Indonesian made it clear that he was tired of answering for his players’ lack of results.
“No comment, they have to answer for themselves,” he said.
The loss will be hard to take for Aaron-Wooi Yik as they needed an individual win to put them in good stead ahead of the World Championships from Aug 21-28 in Tokyo.
The duo have failed to get past the semi-final stage in Open tournaments a few times already this year and also lost in the final of the Asian Championships in May.
Aaron-Wooi Yik were hoping for a good result in the Games as they had performed well in the past in multi-sports events, winning the 2019 SEA Games in Manila and capturing the bronze in last year’s Tokyo Olympics but it was not to be this time.
