PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik are heading for a potential battle against South Korea’s reigning world champions Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae in the French Open.
Aaron-Wooi Yik have been placed in the same half of the draw as the Koreans and could face the latter in the quarter-finals.
Both pairs are locked at 2-2 in the head-to-head records with world No. 2 Min-hyuk-Seung-jae coming out on top against world No. 5 Aaron-Wooi Yik in the Malaysian Open in January and World Championships last August.
Meanwhile, Aaron-Wooi Yik triumphed over the Koreans in the men’s team event in the Hangzhou Asian Games and China Open last year.
Aaron-Wooi Yik made it into the second round after Germany’s Mark Lamsfuss-Marvin Seidel retired with both pairs tied at 12-12 in the opening match at the Adidas Arena in Paris on Tuesday.
Lamsfuss picked up an injury and was forced to throw in the towel.
The national No. 1 pair will next play Taiwan’s world No. 24 Lee Fang-chih-Lee Fang-jen in the second round and victory could pit them against Min-hyuk-Seung-jae.
The Koreans will take on either China’s He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu or homesters Christo Popov-Toma Junior Popov for a place in the last eight.
Meanwhile, Goh Jin Wei, who was Malaysia’s sole representative in the women’s singles, went down 10-21, 14-21 to China’s world No. 9 Wang Zhiyi.
It was world No. 33 Jin Wei’s third consecutive first-round exit in individual tournaments this year after she also suffered the same fate in the Indian Open and Indonesian Masters in January.
The 24-year-old, though, is still on track to qualify for the Paris Olympics, which will be held in the same venue as the French tourney.
