Paris inspiration: Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik aim to be at the top in next year’s Olympics qualifying race, so they want to do well in the World Tour Finals to collect ranking points.
PETALING JAYA: Can men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik save their best for last as the hectic season comes to its final bend?
The world No. 2 are certainly looking to do so as they are pumped up to improve on their recent ordinary showings and end the year on a high in the lucrative World Tour Finals from Dec 13-17 in Hangzhou.
They have qualified for the Finals together with mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei as the only Malaysian representatives for the season finale.
If Aaron-Wooi Yik do well in the Finals, they can end the year as the world No. 1 pair for the first time in their careers.
Aaron-Wooi Yik had suffered back-to-back second round exits in the Japan and ongoing China Masters after ending their World Tour title drought in the Denmark Open last month.
In the China tourney, the world No. 2 pair had fought hard before losing narrowly 25-27, 21-18, 17-21 to homesters and Japan Masters champions He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu of China in Shenzhen.
Aaron said the goal was to dislodge Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang of China from the world No. 1 spot.
Only 1,827 points separate both pairs in the world ranking. The doubles winners in the Finals will enjoy 12,000 ranking points and a whopping prize money of US$210,000 (RM980,000).
“We need to do better than this in the World Tour Finals,” said Aaron.
“We have to cut out unforced errors in our game. We will have to prepare well and keep our focus.
“Our aim is to be at the top in next year’s Paris Olympics qualifying race, so we want to do well in the Finals (to collect ranking points),” he said.
Despite their recent setbacks, Aaron-Wooi Yik remain the country’s most consistent performers this year and confirmed their tickets to the prestigious Finals after finishing fifth in the Race to Hangzhou rankings.
Only the top eight pairs can make the cut.
Besides capturing the Denmark tourney in Odense, Aaron-Wooi Yik had finished runners-up in the Opens in India, Indonesia and China.
The duo had also won bronze in both the World Championships in August and Hangzhou Asian Games last month.
Meanwhile, there were cheers for the home fans in the China Masters when reigning Olympic champion Chen Yufei set up an all-Chinese final in the women’s singles against world No. 8 Han Yue.
Yufei beat South Korea’s Kim Ga-eun 21-16, 21-15 in the last four at the Shenzhen Bay Gymnasium yesterday while Han Yue defeated another teammate Wang Zhiyi 21-14, 21-18.
RESULTS
SEMI-FINALS
Men’s singles: Kodai Naraoka (Jpn) bt Kanta Tsuneyama (Jpn) 21-15, 21-19.
Women’s singles: Chen Yufei (Chn) bt Kim Ga-eun (Kor) 21-16, 21-15; Han Yue (Chn) bt Wang Zhiyi (Chn) 21-14, 21-18.
Women’s doubles: Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota (Jpn) bt Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan (Chn) 14-21, 21-16, 21-15.Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida (Jpn) bt Jeong Na-eun-Kim Hye-jeong (Kor) 21-13, 22-20.
Mixed doubles: Zheng Siwei-Huang Yaqiong (Chn) bt Feng Yanzhe-Huang Dongping (Chn) 21-16, 21-13; Seo Seung-jae-Chae Yu-jung (Kor) bt Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet (Hkg) 21-17, 21-13.
QUARTER-FINALS
Men’s singles: Kodai Naraoka (Jpn) bt H.S. Prannoy (Ind) 21-9, 21-14; Kanta Tsuneyama (Jpn) bt Christo Popov (Fra) 21-18, 21-19.
Men’s doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty (Ind) bt Leo Rolly-Daniel Marthin (Ind) 21-16, 21-14; He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu (Chn) bt Liu Yuchen-Ou Xuanyi (Chn) 21-15, 21-15; Chen Boyang-Liu Yi (Chn) bt Pramudya Kusumawardana-Yeremia Rambitan (Ina) 21-19, 21-19; Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang (Chn) bt Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin (Tpe) 17-21, 21-13, 21-15.
Women’s singles: Chen Yufei (Chn) bt He Bingjiao (Chn) 20-22, 21-14, 5-4, rtd; Kim Ga-eun (Kor) bt Nguyen Thuy Linh (Vie) 21-19, 21-10.
Women’s doubles: Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan (Chn) bt Margot Lambert-Anne Tran (Fra) 21-9, 21-17; Jeong Na-eun-Kim Hye-jeong (Kor) bt Mayu Matsumato-Wakana Nagahara (Jpn) 15-21, 21-17, 21-17; Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida (Jpn) bt Baek Ha-na-Lee So-hee (Kor) 21-16, 21-17.
