PETALING JAYA: There was no seventh final of the year for men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik at the French Open, but the pair still had something to smile about after confirming their spot in the season-ending World Tour Finals.
The former world champions Aaron-Wooi Yik fell 14-21, 19-21 to Indonesia’s rising duo Fajar Alfian-Shohibul Fikri in the semi-finals at the Glaz Arena in Cesson Sevigne on Saturday.
The world No. 2 pair had hoped to reach their second final in three weeks after finishing runners-up to England’s Ben Lane-Sean Vendy in the Arctic Open a fortnight ago, but could not find the answers this time and went down in 40 minutes.
Despite missing out on what would have been their seventh final of the year, their semi-final finish was enough to confirm their qualification for the prestigious World Tour Finals from Dec 17-21 in Hangzhou.
Only the top eight pairs in the Race to Finals rankings make the cut, and Aaron-Wooi Yik have strengthened their grip on second spot, which is a fitting reward for their most consistent season yet.
Aaron-Wooi Yik have now made the cut for the Tour Finals for the sixth time after also qualifying in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, underlining their consistency over the years.
Aaron believes the pair still have room for improvement after they were denied again by Fajar-Shohibul following their loss to the latter in the China Open final in July.
“It’s more about our consistency on court. We are still making a lot of unforced errors,” lamented Aaron in a post match interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
“Overall in Europe, we learned a lot about the mental side of the game.”
Wooi Yik said that he and Aaron were still trying to get to grips with Fajar-Shohibul’s game after the Indonesians combined only in July.
“The Indonesians have quite a lot of variety in their game. We still have not come up with solutions on how to overcome them,” said Wooi Yik.
“They are still a new pair, so we are still adapting to their game. But I think we don’t have to worry too much. We will keep analysing them and try to beat them next time.”
Aaron-Wooi Yik did well to capture three titles so far this by winning at the Asian Championships, Singapore Open and Thailand Open.
