National men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik celebrate after winning over Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in the semi-final match of Malaysian Masters at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil on Saturday. — IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik’s (pic) run in the China Masters might have ended in the last four but the duo showed signs of regaining their best form.
Aaron-Wooi Yik were hoping to reach their sixth final of the year but could not raise their game and went down 17-21, 14-21 to familiar foes Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty of India at the Shenzhen Arena yesterday.
Despite the defeat, it was still an encouraging outing for the world No. 2 pair after their dip in form lately.
Aaron-Wooi Yik lost in the World Championships quarter-finals in Paris last month before a shock first-round exit in the Hong Kong Open in Kowloon last week.
The pair’s disappointing performances in the two competitions had raised concerns but they showed resilience to bounce back in Shenzhen.
Aaron-Wooi Yik though are still not at their best as they struggled to find their feet against Satwiksairaj-Chirag.
The 2022 Asian Games champions had beaten the Malaysians in their last meeting in the world meet and again proved too strong on the day to claim the win.
Aaron-Wooi Yik started strongly and led 10-7 but Satwiksairaj-Chirag quickly turned the tide and never allowed the former a way back into the game.
The world No. 7 pair have rediscovered some of their best form and have made it into back-to-back finals after finishing runners-up to China’s Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang in Hong Kong.
Satwiksairaj-Chirag will be out to go one better this time when they take on the winners of the match between South Korea’s reigning world champions Seo Seung-jae-Kim Won-ho and Indonesia’s China Open winners Fajar Alfian-Shohibul Fikri for the title today.
Aaron-Wooi Yik will again have to try to find a way to overcome their fast-improving rivals. Overall, the duo still hold an 11-5 lead over Satwiksairaj-Chirag in their head-to-head record and will be keen to ensure the latter don’t close the gap.
