Aaron-Wooi Yik miss out on taking world No. 1 spot but can walk tall

 

PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik may have missed their chance to claim the world number one spot this week at the Indonesian Open, but they can still take pride in what they have achieved over the past three weeks.

The world No. 3 Aaron-Wooi Yik went down 13-21, 21-19, 18-21 to Rasmus Kjaer-Frederik Sogaard of Denmark in the first round on Wednesday in Jakarta.

After a successful three weeks where they started by winning the Thailand Open, finishing second at the Malaysian Masters and bagging the Singapore Open, this time at the Istora Senayan, the Malaysians simply had nothing left in the tank.

Aaron-Wooi Yik were in contention to become world number one, provided they won the Indonesian Open, as the points gap among the top three men’s doubles pairs is extremely tight.

Current world number one Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin have 91,090 points, followed closely by Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen with 90,411 points, while Aaron-Wooi Yik sit third with 89,870 points.

The 27-year-old Wooi Yik took the defeat in his stride.

"To be honest, physically it wasn’t great for us, but we kept trying mentally," said Wooi Yik.

 

"We didn’t give up, we just fought for every point. This is the game, and we have to admit the Danes played better than us today (Wednesday).

 

"They were fresher, physically stronger. But it’s okay, we’ll try again and we’ll fight back."

 

Although Aaron-Wooi Yik did not become the world number one pair, they have shown great performance during the past four weeks.

 

They had played 16 matches in four different tournaments over a span of just four weeks and winning two out of it, is praise worthy.

 

Aaron-Wooi Yik said they were motivated to win titles that had been difficult to achieve than to focus solely on reaching the top spot in the rankings.

 

Added Aaron: "I think there’s still room for improvement."

 

"It’s time for us to go back, get some rest, then return to training and prepare for the next tournament," said Aaron.