A tough day: Malaysia’s Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik huffed and puffed to reach the Malaysian Open second round. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik survived a scare against Chen Zhi-yi-Presley Smith of the United States before booking their spot in the second round of the Malaysian Open.
World No. 6 Aaron-Wooi Yik had to dig deep to beat the world No. 37 pair 21-15, 16-21, 21-10 in 57 minutes at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil on Wednesday (Jan 8).
Aaron-Wooi Yik will next play either Taiwan’s Lee Fang-chih-Lee Fang-jen or Liu Kuang-heng-Yang Po-han for a place in the last eight.
Said Aaron: "I felt my condition was okay, but perhaps with the new year, we needed some time to regain our form."
"I think our performance was decent; the important thing was to secure the win to advance to the second round.
"For the second round, we'll focus solely on our preparations."
Wooi Yik felt they should have resorted to a quicker pace.
"We didn't increase our speed much over there, maybe we didn’t adapt well to playing against the drift, and they attacked us. From the start, it wasn’t quite right. But actually, we knew what we needed to do," said Wooi Yik.
"Of course, playing with the drift would always be easier, but playing against it requires more focus.
"The drift changes every day based on my experience at the Malaysian Open. The wind is usually like that, but I think we need to take responsibility and follow the plan," said Wooi Yik.
