PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik survived a huge scare against rising teammates Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi to reach the World Championships quarter-finals.
The 2022 world champions Aaron-Wooi Yik were pushed hard by world No. 22 Roy King-Arif but managed to use their experience to come away with a 18-21, 21-18, 26-24 in a thrilling 64-minute match at the Adidas Arena in Port de la Chapelle in Paris on Thursday (Aug 28).
Aaron-Wooi Yik trailed 8-13 in the second game and 14-17 in the decider but showed great fighting spirit and determination to come back both times and grab the win.
Said Aaron: "Our juniors played well, and I think we had a bit of luck."
Said Wooi Yik: "We train together every day and under the same coach, so we know each other's game well."
"We expected it to be a tough match as our juniors have done well in the last two matches. We give them respect (for the good play) but I'm glad, Aaron and I held tight to win."
The world No. 2 pair have kept alive their hopes of capturing their second world title and will take on India’s 2022 Asian Games champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, who beat China’s Paris Olympics silver medallists Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang 19-21, 21-15, 21-17.
