Lucky duo: Aaron Chia (right) and Soh Wooi Yik qualified for the Finals in Hangzhou, China, from Dec 11-15.
PETALING JAYA: Can doubles shuttler Soh Wooi Yik emulate his idol Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia by winning at the World Tour Finals for the first time with Aaron Chia?
That’s the goal for sure.
Wooi Yik and Aaron have qualified for the Finals in Hangzhou, China, from Dec 11-15 by skin of their teeth as the last qualifiers. They, however, have never been successful in the season finale.
They have competed in four Finals but failed to clear the group stage in all – 2019 Guangzhou, 2020 and 2022 in Bangkok; and 2023 in Hangzhou. They did not make the cut for the 2021 leg in Bali.
Wooi Yik has followed the path of his role model Hendra since he was young. So far, the Malaysian has won the world title in 2020 and bagged medals in the Olympic Games like Hendra.
Wooi Yik-Aaron nicked the bronze medals twice at the 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris editions.
Hendra has won the World Tour Finals in 2019 with Mohamad Ahsan in Guangzhou, and Wooi Yik has a chance to come good next week.
Wooi Yik said Hendra was his only legend.
“He is the only legend in my heart who is not defined by his success,” said Wooi Yik in his IG post.
“But he is forever respected as he had impacted my whole badminton career and my life.”
The 40-year-old Hendra has decided to retire from the sport and his last tournament will be the Indonesian Masters next month.
Hendra and partner Ahsan have won the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medal. He has also emerged as the world champion four times – once with the late Markis Kido in 2007 and the other times with Ahsan in 2013, 2015, 2019.
Hendra also won two Asian Games gold medals (2010, 2014) with Ahsan, as well as two All-England titles (2014, 2019).
Will Wooi Yik play on like Hendra until he hits 40? It’s still a long way to go but the 26-year-old Wooi Yik certainly has the age on his side.
For now, Wooi Yik and Aaron’s focus is to clear the group stage in the Finals.
It will not be easy as their rivals are equally good. The standard among all the eight qualifiers are so close that it could be anyone’s game during the tournament.
The other qualifiers are fellow Malaysians Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani, He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu of China, Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark, Taiwan’s Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan and Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin, Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto and Sabar Karyaman-Reza Pahlevi.
