KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian men’s doubles player Aaron Chia remains optimistic about qualifying for the BWF World Tour Finals for the fifth time, despite his partner Soh Wooi Yik’s ongoing recovery from a right foot injury.
The pair, who secured bronze at the Paris Olympics, face a challenging path to the finals in Hangzhou (December 11 to 15), as Wooi Yik is still recovering from an injury sustained during the Olympic quarter-finals.
To qualify, they need to be among the top eight in the BWF World Tour Finals ranking. Currently, they sit in ninth place with 46,440 points.
“We were supposed to play in the Hong Kong Open and the China Open, but we need to assess Wooi Yik’s situation first.
“We can’t rush it. We’ll see how it goes.
“If there are four or five more tournaments, we’ll enter all of them. If luck is on our side, we might make it to the World Tour Finals.
“We are definitely considering aiming for the finals to maintain our ranking, but we can’t force the situation due to the injury,” Aaron said when met reporters at the Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) earlier today.
The duo face an uphill battle, needing to surpass two fellow Malaysian pairs Choong Hon Jian-Haikal Nazri (ranked fifth) and Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzudin Rumsani (ranked seventh), to secure a spot.
BWF regulations state that only the top eight pairs in each discipline qualify, with a maximum of two pairs from the same member association.
Despite qualifying for the World Tour Finals four times since 2019, Aaron and Wooi Yik have yet to advance beyond the group stage. – September 3, 2024