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KUALA LUMPUR – National men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik entered the final four of the 2022 BWF World Championships after defeating South Korea’s Choi Sol Gyu-Seo Seung Jae 21-18, 21-16 today in Tokyo.
The world number 6 pair started slowly in the first set of the quarter-final but caught up and took the lead going into the 11-point interval, subsequently maintaining the lead to win the set.
The second set proved a much tighter battle as Choi-Seo played aggressively, but 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medallists Aaron-Wooi Yik kept their cool to close out the game in 40 minutes.
“The key for the win today was playing calmly, making sure we have quality shots that pressured our opponents,” said Wooi Yik at the Metropolitan Gymnasium after the win.
Aaron said the pair needs to be more consistent when playing the final rounds of a tournament.
Having been unsuccessful in making it past the semi-finals in the last three competitions, he added that this time things will be in their favour.
“We are improving and need to be more consistent, we hope to break through the hurdle where we always get stuck.”
This is the pair’s fourth win in their last six meetings against the South Korean duo, with the last meeting coming in Tokyo as well during the 2020 Olympics group stage match – which Aaron-Wooi Yik won.
They are the only remaining Malaysian men’s doubles pair in the tournament after beating compatriots Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin 21-17, 21-19 yesterday in the round of 16.
Aaron-Wooi Yik will either play India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty or second seeds Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi from Japan tomorrow in the semi-finals. – The Vibes, August 26, 2022