NATIONAL men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik lost to South Koreans Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae 21-23, 13-21 in the semi-finals of the BWF World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, today.

In the first set, the fourth-seeded Malaysians not only squandered their early four-point lead, but failed to break away from their opponents as the South Koreans continued to match points thrice before snatching two points for the win.

Emboldened by their hard-fought first set victory, the South Koreans kept the pressure up in the second set, securing a dominating lead at 11-7 and successfully capitalising on Aaron-Wooi Yik’s errors to win the game by eight points.

Aaron-Wooi Yik, the only Malaysian representative to have made it to the semi-finals in this year’s championships, will have to be satisfied with the bronze as Min-hyuk-Seung-jae advance to the finals against home pair Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup, who beat third seeds Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang of China 17-21, 21-18, 21-19 in the semi-finals.

Top seeds Chen Qingchen-Jia Yi Fan of China will meet Indonesia’s Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti in the women’s doubles finals, while the mixed doubles final will be between China’s Zheng Si Wei-Huang Ya Qiong and South Korea’s Seo Seung-jae-Chae Yu-jung.

Top seed, South Korean An Se-young, will play Carolina Marin of Spain in the women’s singles final, and Thailand’s Kunvalut Vitidsarn will meet Japan’s Kodai Naraoka in the men’s singles finals. – Bernama, August 27, 2023.