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PETALING JAYA: A mental test awaits men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik (pic) in the Hylo Open starting today in Saarbrucken, Germany.
Aaron-Wooi Yik are set to compete in their fourth back-to-back competition in Europe and will be pushed to their physical and mental limits as they bid to continue their fine performances this year.
The world No. 2 pair finished runners-up in the Arctic Open before a first round exit in the Denmark Open and a semi-final finish in the French Open.
In the Hylo tourney, Aaron-Wooi Yik will be the top seeds in the absence of world No. 1 and newly crowned French Open champions Seo Seung-jae-Kim Won-ho of South Korea.
The 2022 world champions though will not have it easy as several big names including Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian-Shohibul Fikri, Sabar Gutama-Moh Reza and Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen will all be playing in the competition.
Aaron said that the past few weeks in Europe have taught him and Wooi Yik a lot on the mental aspect of the game.
“We have been learning a lot on the mental side of the game over these few weeks. The French Open is over, so we need to prepare again for the Hylo Open,” said Aaron.
Aaron-Wooi Yik will open their campaign against Scotland’s world No. 41 Christopher Grimley-Matthew Grimley.
Malaysia will also be represented in the men’s doubles by world No. 4 Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani, world No. 5 Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun, Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi (No. 19), Tan Wee Kiong-Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub (No. 24) and Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi (No. 30).
The other Malaysians in the fray are Leong Jun Hao, Jacky Kok, Tan Jia Jie (men’s singles), K. Letshanaa, S. Kisona (women’s singles), Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting (women’s doubles) and Wong Tien Ci-Lim Chiew Sien (mixed doubles).
Meanwhile, Denmark’s Anders Antonsen captured his second title of the year in the French Open after beating homester Christo Popov 21-12, 21-19.
Although Popov missed out on the title, he created history by becoming the first Frenchman to reach the home Open final.
It was also double joy for South Korea after An Se-young and Seo Seung-jae-Kim Won-ho won in the women’s singles and men’s doubles respectively.
Se-young was in dominant form as she beat Wang Zhiyi 21-13, 21-7 while Seung-jae-Won-ho impressively came from behind to defeat Fajar-Shohibul 10-21, 21-13, 21-12.
It was the ninth title in a sensational year for both the 23-year-old and her teammates.
