KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 — National men’s doubles duo Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik lived up to expectations by cruising into the quarter-finals of the India Open 2025 in New Delhi today.

In the second round of the Super 750 tourney held at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex today, the fifth seeds took 34-minutes to oust unseeded pair from China, Xie Hao Nan-Zeng Wei Han, 21-10, 21-18.

Up next for the former 2022 world champions is a showdown against either fourth seeds from Indonesia Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto or Thailand’s Kittinupong Kedren-Dechapol Puavaranukroh.

Speaking after the game, Aaron felt they are slowly regaining their rhythm following second round exits to Taiwanese twins Lee Fang-Chih-Lee Fang-Jen, 14-21, 18-21, at the Malaysia Open 2025 last week.

"We are slowly getting back our rhythm but there’s still more room for improvement,” he said in an audio recording shared by Badminton World Federation to the media.

In the meantime, national top women’s doubles duo Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah made it to the quarter-finals after the Malaysia Open 2025 runners-up Jia Yi Fan-Zhang Shu Xian of China retired when the Malaysians led 14-4 in the opening set.

Meanwhile, national number one mixed doubles duo Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei came from behind to deny newly-crowned Malaysia Open 2025 champions Puavaranukroh-Supissara Paewsampran from Thailand a chance to clinch a second title this season following a 19-21, 21-12, 22-20, victory.

Another Thai duo, Ruttanapak Oupthong-Jenicha Sudjaipraparat await Tang Jie-Ee Wei in the last eight after they stunned sixth seeds from China, Xing Cheng-Chi Zhang, 21-17, 20-22, 21-17.

Husband and wife pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie, on the other hand, needed 59-minutes to dispose Yuta Watanabe-Maya Taguchi from Japan, 21-10, 19-21, 21-16.

The fourth seeds will next play fifth seeds Yang Po-Hsuan-Hu Ling Fang after the Taiwanese duo outplayed home pair Ashith Surya-Amrutha Pramuthesh, 21-8, 21-11.

However, the journey of the country’s sole men’s singles shuttler Leong Jun Hao’s ended in the India Open 2025 at the hands of Weng Hong Yang of China, losing 18-21, 12-21 in 44-minutes.

Jun Hao admitted he clearly struggled to adapt to Hong Yang’s supremacy at the front court which took a toll on his performance. — Bernama