Pushing the limits: Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik returning a shot to China’s He Jiting and Ren Xiangyu. — AFP
PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik suffered a blow in their hopes of qualifying for the World Tour Finals from Dec 11-15 in Hangzhou after they bowed out of the China Masters.
Aaron-Wooi Yik went down fighting 23-25, 21-17, 12-21 to world No. 6 home pair He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu in the quarter-finals at the Shenzhen Gymnasium yesterday.
The world No. 5 duo needed to win to keep alive their chances of making the cut for the Finals but ran out of steam in the third game and lost in 73 minutes.
Aaron-Wooi Yik are currently ninth in the Race to Hangzhou rankings and need others to falter to have any chance of breaking into the top eight and qualifying for the Finals.
The 21-18, 19-21, 21-23 defeat of Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani to Indonesia’s Sabar Gutama-Moh Reza did not help Aaron-Wooi Yik to confirm their spot in the Finals.
The pair felt that they have not managed to remain consistent in their past few tournaments despite giving themselves a fighting chance of earning a spot in Hangzhou by capturing the Korean Masters title earlier this month.
The pair were out of action for two months after winning bronze in the Paris Olympics in August due to Wooi Yik’s toe injury.
“In the last few tournaments, our performance were up and down,” said Wooi Yik in a post match interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
“It’s been quite tough for me after getting injured in the Olympics. I needed more than a month to recover.
“I’m glad to be back playing but it’s not easy to return to the level needed against the top pairs.
“To compete with the best player, we need to be in top condition. We just have to keep improving.”
Meanwhile, women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah’s run also came to an end after they went down 16-21, 17-21 to world No. 1 and home favourites Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning.
On the defeat, Thinaah said: “We did not do well in our service and receiving and our opponents were really putting a lot of pressure on us there.
“Some of the shots were not reaching the baseline as well and this gave our opponents the opportunity to attack us. We still need to work on a few aspects in our game.”
Pearly-Thinaah though have already assured themselves a place in the Finals.
