TOP national men’s doubles pair and reigning world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik again failed to live up to expectations when they crashed out in the second round of the 2023 Malaysia Open badminton championships today.

World no. 3 Aaron-Wooi Yik went down 10-21, 21-23 to Liu Yu Chen-Ou Xuan Yi of China, much to the disappointment of more than 2,000 spectators at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.

It was Aaron-Wooi Yik’s third loss to the Chinese pair, having also gone down to them in the 2022 Indonesia Open last June and the 2022 World Tour Finals last month.

“We made many unforced errors from the first game. I guess we all know that Yu Chen is a solid player and we have not beaten them,” said Aaron.

“We took to the court today with a lot of pressure but we are not going to use that as an excuse.

“The Malaysia Open is the first tournament for the year, so we need to improve a lot more because the focus is to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.”

Yu Chen-Xuan Yi are set to take on India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty for a spot in the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, national mixed doubles pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie were also eliminated in the second round after going down 16-21, 10-21 to top seeds Zheng Si Wei-Huang Ya Qiong of China. – Bernama, January 12, 2023.