Formidable foes: Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik returning a shot to South Korea’s Seo Seung-jae-Kim Won-ho during their semi-final match. — AFP
PETALING JAYA: National men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik had hoped to restore their status as the top pair in the country but that was dashed after they lost in the semi-finals of the Indian Open.
The world No. 5 Aaron-Wooi Yik narrowly went down 20-22, 19-21 to Malaysian Open champions Seo Seung-jae-Kim Won-ho of South Korea in the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi yesterday.
They squandered a good opportunity to win the first game when they led 20-18.
The Koreans refused to give up and stayed cool to grab the next four points to give themselves the advantage.
Aaron-Wooi Yik tried to mount a comeback in the second game but again came second best in the crucial moments.
The world champions are currently ranked second in the country behind world No. 2 Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani. Pros Sze Fei-Izzuddin overtook Aaron-Wooi Yik in the rankings for the first time in five years last month.
While happy they had showed improvement in the game, Aaron said: “We gave our best but the Koreans were more consistent during the crucial points.”
Wooi Yik added: “Their defensive play was more stable than ours. We couldn’t control the game and they gained in confidence in the second game.
“We attacked well but we had to be more consistent in our shots.
“We knew Seung-jae is a strong player and recently his form has been quite good. We need to learn from this and try to do better after this.”
Aaron-Wooi Yik will now have another opportunity to gain more ranking points when they play next in the Indonesian Masters which starts on Tuesday in Jakarta.
The outing in India however was still better than last week’s Malaysian Open where they suffered a second round exit.
Aaron-Wooi Yik were the fourth pair to exit the semi-final action yesterday after the defeats of Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah (women’s doubles); Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie and Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei (mixed doubles).
