PARIS, Aug 2 — The country’s gold medal hopefuls at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik suffered another semi-final setback.

The reigning men’s doubles bronze medalist went down 19-21, 21-15, 17-21 after a nerve-racking semi-final battle against top seeds Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang of China, today.

Aaron-Wooi Yik, the 2022 world champions, fought the first set closely from point to point, but the reigning Asian champions eventually took the first set at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena.

The Malaysians, then bounced back to overcome Wei Keng-Chang in the second set with their blistering shots.

However, the mighty Chinese pair managed to hold Aaron-Wooi Yik after another neck and neck challenge in the decider to advance to the finals after a marathon clash that lasted over an hour.

Aaron-Wooi Yik will next face defending champions Lee Yang-Wang Chi Lin of Taiwan or Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in the bronze medal playoff on Sunday.

In Tokyo 2020 semi-finals, Aaron-Wooi Yik went down to Li Jun Hui-Liu Yu Chen of China, before upsetting former world champions Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia to settle for the bronze.

Earlier in the women’s doubles semi-finals, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah also lost 12-21, 21-18, 15-21 after a 78-minute intense battle against the reigning silver medalist Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan of China.

Aaron-Wooi Yik finished as runners-up in Group A, losing to Wei Keng-Chang 22-24, 14-21, but secured victories over Great Britain’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 19-21, 21-16, 21-11 on Saturday, and Canada’s Adam Dong and Nyl Yakura 21-10, 21-15 on Sunday to advance to the quarter-finals. — Bernama