KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 13 — National men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik gave it everything they had but still fell short as they went down 16-21, 21-14, 18-21 to Japan’s Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi in their opening Group A tie of the Badminton World Tour (BWF) World Tour Finals in Hangzhou, China today.
Both pairs looked equally matched initially as they were tied at 5-5 but world number three Aaron-Wooi Yik failed to maintain their consistency and this allowed the Japanese pair to romp home 21-16 in the first game
Undaunted, the Malaysians bounced back to overcome the world number seven Japanese 21-14 in the second game and force a decider.
Although Aaron-Wooi Yik found themselves trailing 8-11 in the rubber game, slowly but surely they managed to level the score at 15-15. But, just like in the first game, their consistency disappeared and with that their hope for victory as the Japanese pair stormed to a 21-18 victory after a 62-minute battle.
Malaysia has no representatives in the men’s and women’s singles and women’s doubles categories at this season-ending tournament after all the national players failed to finish in the top eight of the “Race to BWF World Tour Finals 2023”.
Malaysia’s mixed doubles pair of Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei will be in action tonight when they take on world number four Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping of China in a Group A match.
Meanwhile, national mixed doubles duo Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei also suffered a similar fate when they were trounced 10-21, 13-21 by world number four pair, Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping of China.
However, they will proceed their campaign in group A against Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino of Japan in their second game tomorrow.
According to previous records, the national pair defeated Yuta-Arisa who were the 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medallists twice namely in the Singapore Open 2023 and the World Championships 2023.
Based on the tournament format, only the top two teams from each group qualify for the semi-finals. — Bernama
