PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Woi Yik’s title charge at the Singapore Open faces a tough wall as they need to get past China’s Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang in the quarter-finals today.
World No. 2 Aaron-Wooi Yik stormed into the last eight after defeating England’s world No. 13 Ben Lane-Sean Vendy in straight games, closing out the second round match 21-18, 21-16.
However, defending champions Aaron-Wooi Yik’s efforts for another Super 750 title in Singapore will be tested as they need to beat fifth seeds Weiking-Wang Chang.
The Malaysians will need to dig deep as their opponents holds the head-to-head advantage between them, having won 10 of their past 13 clashes, including the most recent at the Thomas Cup Finals in Horsens, Denmark, last month.
The Malaysians’ last win over their opponents came at the Asian Championships in China last year.
A win for Aaron-Wooi Yik could see them meet compatriots Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani in the semi-finals, granted the latter pair get past their quarter-final match-up.
Eighth seeds Sze Fei-Izzuddin faced an all-Malaysian second round clash against Wan Arif Wan Junaidi and Yap Roy King, but saw themselves through to the next round.
They won 23-21, 16-21, 21-8 against world No. 17 Arif-Roy King, marking their fourth straight win against their compatriots.
Sze Fei-Izzuddin, who came in second at last week’s Malaysian Masters, will face Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian-Shohibul Fikri in the quarters.
World No. 5 Fajar-Shohibul had taken down Malaysian Masters champions Daniel Lundgaard-Mads Vestergaard of Denmark in the second round.
