PETALING JAYA: Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik have one final score to settle at the World Championships, with bogey pair Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang of China standing between them and a second world crown.
Aaron-Wooi Yik booked their place in Sunday’s (Aug 23) final after stunning defending champions and world No. 1 pair Kim Won-ho-Seo Seung-jae 21-17, 21-18 in the semi-finals at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday (Aug 22).
The victory also made amends for their defeats to the South Koreans in two finals this year, at the Malaysian Open in January and All-England in March.
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Having fallen short against Won-ho-Seung-jae on both occasions, Aaron said they knew they needed to change their approach this time, and it paid off.
"We had to play differently from the usual way. We’ve played them many times and we needed something different to take down the Korean pair," Aaron said in a post-match interview with BWF.
Aaron-Wooi Yik also admitted they did not expect to find themselves in another world final after everything they had gone through over the past two months.
But there will be little time to celebrate, as another difficult task awaits them against Weikeng-Wang Chang.
The Chinese pair have dominated their rivalry, winning 11 of their previous 14 meetings.
Weikeng-Wang Chang have also beaten Aaron-Wooi Yik twice this year, first at the Thomas Cup Finals in Horsens in April before getting the better of them again in the Singapore Open quarter-finals in June.
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Despite the daunting record, Aaron-Wooi Yik are happy to go into the final as underdogs as they look to repeat their historic triumph from four years ago.
The pair became Malaysia’s first badminton world champions when they captured the title in Tokyo in 2022.
"Honestly, after so many things happened, for us to get through to the final again is a good boost," said Wooi Yik.
"But for me, I don’t want to get too overhyped. It feels normal. Aaron and I just want to keep going.
"As usual, we want to play like underdogs because we’ve played as a top pair for so many years, so we want to play differently this time."
