No Hangzhou high: Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik fail to win any of their group matches at the World Tour Finals.
PETALING JAYA: It’s not all bad.
That’s shuttler Soh Wooi Yik’s assessment of his overall performance with Aaron Chia this year after bowing out of the World Tour Finals without any breakthroughs at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Gymnasium yesterday.
Hopes of reaching their first ever semi-finals in the prestigious season finale went up in smoke when they went down fighting 21-18, 14-21, 12-21 to home favourites and world No. 1 Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang in their third Group A match.
Aaron-Wooi Yik had lost both their opening matches to Japan’s Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi and defending champions Liu Yuchen-Ou Xuanyi of China in three games but still had a slim chance of progressing to the last four.
All they needed to do was to beat Weikeng-Wang Chang and yesterday, they did get off to a brilliant start but they could not maintain their performance against the tenacious world No. 3 pairing.
It was the Malaysians’ sixth defeat in seven matches.
Weikeng-Wang Chang will join Yuchen-Xuanyi in the semi-finals.
Aaron-Wooi Yik have now failed to reach the last four of the tournament for the fourth time. The pair also did not win any of their matches last year in Bangkok.
“Overall, it was not a bad year for us but we still have a lot to learn and improve on,” said Wooi Yik.
“We had some results that were not good and we will try to do better next year.”
Aaron admitted they lost to a better pair.
“Our focus was only on how we were going to play today (yesterday) but our opponents played better than us,” said Aaron in a post-match interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
Wooi Yik chipped in: “They attacked really well. In the first game, they made some mistakes but they managed to play their own game after that. We didn’t get much opportunities to score points.”
With the defeat, they will end the season as the world No. 2 pair.
They did well this year to emerge as the Denmark Open champions and saved Malaysia the blushes by winning bronze medals at the Asian Games in Hangzhou and World Championships.
They were also the runners-up in the Indian, Indonesian and China Opens.
The duo did not get off to a good start this year when they suffered early round exits in Malaysian Open, All-England and Asian Championships.
Aaron-Wooi Yik will get a chance to erase their disappointments at home as they hope to come fresh after a short break to mount a strong challenge at the Malaysian Open from Jan 9-14 in Bukit Jalil.
RESULTS
MEN’S SINGLES
Group B: Li Shifeng (Chn) bt Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Tha) 21-18, 22-20; Jonatan Christie (Ina) bt Anders Antonsen (Den) 21-16, 21-18; Antonsen bt Kunlavut 21-16, 21-11.
MEN’S DOUBLES
Group A: Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang (Chn) bt Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik (Mas) 18-21, 21-14, 21-12; Liu Yuchen-Ou Xuanyi (Chn) bt Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi (Jpn) bt 21-12, 21-17.
Group B: Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae (Kor) bt Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto (Ina) 22-20, 17-21, 21-12; Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen (Den) bt Shohibul Fikri-Bagas Maulana (Ina) 21-17, 21-6.
WOMEN’S SINGLES
Group A: An Se-young (Kor) bt Tai Tzu-ying (Tpe) 21-17, 21-15; Gregoria Mariska (Ina) bt Kim Ga-eun (Kor) 21-14, 20-22, 21-14.
Group B: Han Yue (Chn) bt Zhang Beiwen (US) 22-20, 21-16; Carolina Marin (Spa) bt Chen Yufei (Chn) 25-23, 24-22.
WOMEN’S DOUBLES
Group A: Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning (Chn) bt Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti (Ina) 21-13, 21-8; Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan (Chn) w.o Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara (Jpn).
Group B: Baek Ha-na-Lee So-hee (Kor) bt Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida (Jpn) 21-18, 9-21, 21-16; Kim So-yeong-Kong Hee-yong (Kor) bt bt Jongkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajongjai (Tha) 21-15, 21-19.
MIXED DOUBLES
Group A: Feng Yanzhe-Huang Dongping (Chn) bt Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai (Tha) 12-21, 21-12, 21-18.
Group B: Seo Seung-jae-Chae Yu-jung (Kor) bt Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet (Hkg) 17-21, 21-13, 21-18.
