Sheer happiness: Soh Wooi Yik and Aaron Chia celebrate after reaching the semi-finals of the World Championships. - Badminton Photo
PETALING JAYA: Defending champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik continued to keep the Malaysian flag flying high in the World Championships.
The world No. 4 smashed into the men's doubles semi-finals after pulling off a hard-fought 21-10, 15-21, 21-14 victory over China's Liu Yuchen-Ou Xuanyi in style at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen on Friday (Aug 25).
Armed with strong determination, Aaron-Wooi Yik played brilliantly to claim their first win over the world No. 7 Chinese duo in four meetings.
The Malaysians will now take on South Korea's Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae for a place in a second consecutive final. The Koreans defeated Indonesian veterans Mohd Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan 21-19, 21-17.
The other men's doubles semi-final will be between Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang and homesters Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen.
Wooi Yik was thrilled with their fantastic win and attributed it to their good understanding on court.
"It was a good match today and we want to keep maintaining our performance," said Wooi Yik.
"We communicated well with each other in the third game.
"We hope to keep our focus in our next match."
Aaron-Wooi Yik are the last Malaysians left standing in the tournament following the defeats of Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah (women's doubles) and Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei (mixed doubles) earlier.
While Aaron-Wooi Yik were celebrating, home star and two-time world champion (2017 and 2022) Viktor Axelsen collapsed in front of his fans after going down fighting 21-13, 15-21, 16-21 to H.S. Prannoy of India in the men's singles quarter-finals, in what was the biggest shock of the day.
It was only Prannoy's third win in their past 10 meetings over a decade.
Top seed Viktor, who made many unforced errors in the deciding game, took the defeat in his stride.
"I didn't feel comfortable and couldn't play the way I hoped to but that's part of life and I need to learn from this and see how I can move forward," said the 29-year-old Axelsen..
The world No. 9 Prannoy, who is two years older than the Dane, was ecstatic to reach his first semi-finals in the world meet after many failed attempts.
"I just went all out and didn't think too much," said Prannoy, who was calm and composed throughout the match.
"I kept focusing on how to get the next five points (when he was leading 16-12 in the decider). It feels good to win," added Prannoy, who has assured his first medal in the world meet in his biggest career success in an individual event.
He faces Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand next.
