PETALING JAYA: It was a day of contrasting fortunes for national No. 1 doubles pairs Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah (pic) and Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik as the former made it into the semi-finals of the Indonesian Masters while the latter fell to a shock defeat.
Women’s doubles pair and world No. 6 Pearly-Thinaah gave a dominant display to dispatch off new Chinese pairing Li Wenmei-Liu Xuanxuan 21-10, 21-12 in 37 minutes at Istora Senayan in Jakarta yesterday.
But men’s reigning world doubles champion Aaron-Wooi Yik failed to follow their compatriots into the last-four when they were stunned 17-21, 10-21 by China’s world No. 21 He Jiting-Zhou Haodong.
Just a day earlier, world No. 2 Aaron-Wooi Yik had turned the tables on another Chinese pair, world No. 7 Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang but could not continue their good form yesterday and struggled to contain Jiting-Haodong’s relentless attacks.
“At the end of the first game, Aaron-Wooi Yik made some simple errors that proved costly.
“In the second game, the Chinese pair played a fast game while our pair started to slow down and played too many defensive shots,” lamented national doubles coach Tan Bin Shen.
“Moving forward, I hope Aaron-Wooi Yik can improve on their focus on court and cut down on their mistakes.
“They also need to be ready when their opponents increase their speed, so that they will not be placed under pressure,” added Bin Shen.
For Pearly-Thinaah, it was their back-to-back semi-final appearances after also reaching the last-four of the Indian Open last week.
They will face Japan’s world No. 11 Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota next in their bid to reach their first final of the year.
“We are happy with our performance today (yesterday) but we want to keep our focus on our next match.
“We want to be more consistent,” said Thinaah.
Both Pearly-Thinaah and Fukushima-Hirota are evenly matched based on their head-to-head record as each have triumphed twice over the other.
Pearly-Thinaah did come out on top in their last meeting at the 2022 Malaysian Masters.
Meanwhile, in the mixed doubles, Malaysia’s challenge came to an end after independent pair and world No. 7 Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie went down 16-21, 19-21 to world No. 5 Thom Gicquel-Delphine Delrue of France.
It was all over for Malaysia in the men’s singles as well when world No. 4 Lee Zii Jia fell to a disappointing 21-16, 20-22, 13-21 defeat to Hong Kong’s world No. 18 Angus Ng Ka Long in the second round on Thursday.
It was the independent player’s third straight early round exit this year after also suffering the same fate in the Malaysian and Indian Opens.
RESULTS
(Malaysians only)
Second round
Men’s singles: Angus Ng Ka Long (Hkg) bt Lee Zii Jia 16-21, 22-20, 21-13.
Mixed doubles: Jafar Hidayatullah-Aisyah Salsabila (Ina) bt Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing 21-15, 7-21, 21-14.
Quarter-finals
Men’s doubles: He Jiting-Zhou Haodong (Chn) bt Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik 21-17, 21-10.
Women’s doubles: Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah bt Li Wenmei-Liu Xuanxuan (Chn) 21-10, 21-12.
Mixed doubles: Thom Gicquel-Delphine Delrue (Fra) bt Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie 21-16, 21-19.
