Malaysia’s men’s doubles ace: Aaron Chia (right) and Soh Wooi Yik.
SHAH ALAM: Expect men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik to have a few tricks up their sleeves in the Asia Team Championships.
The world No. 5 are planning to use the team meet which starts today at the Setia Alam Convention Centre, as a testing ground for them to implement a few new strategies.
World No. 5 Aaron-Wooi Yik will be competing in their first tournament since reaching the semi-finals of the Indian Open in New Delhi nearly a month ago.
The pair, who are already assured of a spot in the Paris Olympics, could afford to skip the Indonesian and Thailand Masters after the Indian tourney.
“We have been undergoing a new training programme during the past month as part of our preparations for the Olympics,” said Wooi Yik after a training session yesterday.
“We have been adapting ourselves to the programme but we can’t disclose much about it.
“All we can say is that we have been trying out some new strategies that we plan to implement in this tournament. Hopefully, it goes well for us.”
Despite the absence of several top pairs, Aaron-Wooi Yik will still likely get the opportunity to test out the tweaks in their game against the likes of Taiwan’s reigning Olympic champions Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin, India’s world No. 1 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, China’s world No. 14 He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu and Indonesia’s world No. 12 Leo Rolly-Daniel Marthin.
Malaysia have been drawn against Taiwan in Group B and could face India, Indonesia or China later in the tournament.
Aaron-Wooi Yik and their teammates will play minnows Brunei today and Kazakhstan tomorrow before taking on Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the duo are ready to form scratch pairings if necessary in the tournament.
“Team events are interesting especially in the doubles as there are opportunities to field scratch pairings,” said Aaron.
“We are ready to play with anyone depending on the coaches’ strategy.
“All of us train together and know each other’s games well, so this will not be an issue for us.”
