KUALA LUMPUR — The top national badminton pair, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, qualified for the semifinals of the World Championship by beating China’s Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen today.
The world number four Malaysian pair took only 50 minutes to win 21-10, 15-21, 21-14 against their opponents, who are ranked sixth in the world.
“This is the first time we have defeated this opponent and our mental readiness was better as compared to our previous outings,” said Aaron in the post-match interview with BWF.
“We did well in communicating on the court. I hope we maintain this momentum for our match tomorrow,” added Wooi Yik.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympic bronze medalists are the only Malaysians left in the world meet.
In the semifinal later today, the duo will either take on last year’s runner-up Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia or Kang Min Hyuk -Seo Seung Jae of South Korea.
Earlier, the national women’s doubles pair, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, saw their run in the World Championships come to an end after the pair went down fighting 21-17, 17-21, 19-21 to China’s Zhang Shuxian-Zheng Yu in the quarterfinals.
The world number 11 pair had hoped to become the first women’s pair to win a medal at the world meet but fell just short.
The heartbreaking defeat meant that Pearly-Thinaah’s winless run against the world number six Chinese pair extended to four matches.
The duo also lost in three games to their Chinese opponents in the Australian Open in Sydney recently.
Similarly, the mixed doubles pair, Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei, saw their impressive run at the World Championships end in heartbreak with a defeat in the quarterfinals to Japan’s Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino.
The debutants, who are also the world number 14 pair, were no match for the 2022 Tokyo World Championships runners-up as they were tamed 11-21, 11-21 in a match that lasted only 27 minutes. — August 26, 2023