KUALA LUMPUR – National men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik were pushed to the limit before sealing their spot in the quarter-finals of the Badminton Asia Championships in Ningbo, China, today.
Aaron-Wooi Yik faced off against Kenya Mitsuhashi-Hiroki Okamura of Japan in the second round and took 61 minutes to rubber-stamp their victory over the world number 25 pair at the Ningbo Olympic Sports Centre.
In a closely contested match, the Malaysian world number five pair won the first set, but the Japanese pair stormed back to win the second.
However, the tournament’s fourth seed seemed to have read their opponents’ gameplay in the third set, sealing the match at 21-18, 14-21, 21-14.
Aaron-Wooi Yik will now take on world number eight pair and tournament seventh seed Liu Yuchen-Ou Xuanyi of China in the quarter-final.
Earlier, Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani made the quarter-final after their opponent from China retired from the match.
Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin will take on reigning Olympic champion Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin from Chinese Taipei.
If Aaron-Wooi Yik and Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin win their quarter-final matches, it will be an all-Malaysian semi-final clash. – April 11, 2024