PETALING JAYA: Losing to a much lower ranked pair can be demoralising but men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik are refusing to feel too downhearted.
Instead the world No. 5 are taking their narrow 16-21, 21-16, 21-23 defeat to China’s world No. 90 Xie Haonan-Zeng Weihan in the Asia Team Championships final in their stride as they turn their focus to the European tour starting with the French Open from Mar 5-10 in Paris.
While the team went on to lose the overall tie 0-3, Aaron-Wooi Yik’s main mission remain to capture the elusive gold medal in the Paris Olympics in July.
“We are taking the defeat to the Chinese pair as part of the process that we need to go through ahead of the Olympics,” said Wooi Yik.
“We are not too disappointed as there are still many challenges ahead for us.
“We gave everything during the match but luck did not favour us in the end.”
Aaron believes that although he and Wooi Yik could not help the team defend their title won in the last edition in 2022, the team meet was still a good preparation for the duo ahead of the European tourneys.
Aaron-Wooi Yik will also compete in the prestigious All-England from Mar 12-17 after the French tourney.
The pair’s last outing before the Asia team meet was the Indian Open in New Delhi last month where they reached the semi-finals.
“The team meet has given us a good preparation. If we had not played there, we would have been without tournaments for about six weeks which is not ideal.
“It has kept us match fit and sharp ahead of the French Open.”
Aaron-Wooi Yik will open their campaign in Paris against Germany’s Mark Lamsfuss-Marvin Seidel.
A victory could see the former pitted against teammates and world No. 22 Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani in the second round.
Sze Fei-Izzuddin first need to clear their opening round hurdle against Taiwan’s Lee Fang-chih-Lee Fang-jen.
Meanwhile, the other Malaysians in the fray in the men’s doubles will be world No. 11 Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi and world No. 17 Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun.
Yew Sin-Ee Yi face an uphill battle in the first round against India’s world No. 1 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty while Wei Chong-Kai Wun have a much easier match against unheralded Canadians Kevin Lee-Ty Lindeman.
