Struggling: Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik in action against Taiwan’s Lee Fang-chih-Lee Fang-jen. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: The favourites Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik bowed out but Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun stole their teammates’ thunder to march into the men’s doubles quarter-finals in the Malaysian Open.
Yesterday, world No. 6 Aaron-Wooi Yik could not raise their game and went down 14-21, 18-21 to Taiwan’s world No. 27 Lee Fang-chih-Lee Fang-jen at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
With the defeat, the 2022 world champions failed to give their coach Tan Bin Shen a farewell gift before he leaves for Hong Kong. Aaron-Wooi Yik looked far from their best and suffered their first defeat to the Taiwanese pair in three meetings much to the disappointment of the home fans.
“We did not play well today. We made many unforced errors and could not keep the pressure on our opponents,” said a dejected Aaron.
“They were calmer on court while we gave away easy points. We did better in the second game but it was still not good enough.”
When quizzed if he and Wooi Yik were carrying any injuries that may have hampered their performance, Aaron replied sharply, “No, no injuries.”
It was still a good day for Malaysia when world No. 14 Wei Chong-Kai Wun produced a superb display to oust another Taiwanese pair, world No. 10 Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan.
The pair, who finished runners-up in the 2023 Malaysian Masters, were dominant throughout and only needed 31 minutes to come away with a 21-15, 21-13 victory.
Wei Chong-Kai Wun will next play either Denmark’s world No. 26 Daniel Lundgaard-Mads Vestergaard or world No. 29 French brothers Toma Junior Popov-Christo Popov.
The former are out to continue their fine run after making it into the last eight in the tourney for the first time.
Wei Chong-Kai Wun lost out in the first round in last year’s edition.
“Our opponents are a top pair but we prepared well for this year,” said Wei Chong.
“We did well in the service and receiving and a few lucky shots also were in our favour. Overall, we are happy with our performance and we hope to continue doing well in the next round.”
