Focused: Aaron Chia (back) and Soh Wooi Yik in action against Japan’s Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi during the quarter-final match.
CHENGDU: Men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik are out to make amends after missing out on a point for the team against Japan in the last eight of the Thomas Cup Finals.
Aaron-Wooi Yik came agonisingly close to ending their three-year wait for a win over 2021 world champions Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi but could not finish strongly and lost 21-18, 21-14, 19-21 in 67 minutes.
The 2022 world title winners’ last win over Hoki-Kobayashi came in the 2021 Sudirman Cup group match and they had lost seven times overall in their past nine meetings with the Japanese pair.
Malaysia still won the overall tie 3-1 after Leong Jun Hao and Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani delivered in the second singles and doubles respectively but Aaron-Wooi Yik were still disappointed to not register a win.
The pair fought back from 12-19 down to make it 19-19 in the third game and were unlucky to lose.
“Our head-to-head record against Hoki-Kobayashi was not favourable to us but we made it really tough for them this time,” said Aaron.
“We lost but we can still be positive about our overall performance. We will try to get a point for the team in our next match.”
Aaron-Wooi Yik, who have been Malaysian’s most consistent performers over the past two years, are now out to make up for the bitter defeat when they go up against China’s world No. 1 Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang in the semi-finals today.
Malaysia face a difficult task against the hosts and will be relying on the pair to inspire the team to victory.
Aaron-Wooi Yik will again attempt to beat a pair that they have struggled against in the past.
The duo have only beaten Weikeng-Wang Chang once in their past seven meetings with their sole win coming in the first round of the 2023 Indonesian Masters.
In their last encounter, the Chinese pair beat Aaron-Wooi Yik 18-21, 21-14, 21-12 in a group match in the World Tour Finals at the end of last year.
