Aaron-Wooi Yik enter All-England semis in style but Zii Jia goes down fighting
PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik smashed into the All-England semi-finals but it was the end of the road for professional singles player Lee Zii Jia.
The pair will next play Taiwan’s in-form duo Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan, who captured the German Open title and finished runners-up in the French Open in the past two weeks.
The other semi-final match will be between Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi of Japan and Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto of Indonesia.
“We were able to execute our strategy well today (yesterday) and we played confidently, so we are very happy,” said Wooi Yik in a post match interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
“We have to keep improving as we have a tough match next against the Taiwanese pair, who have been playing very well recently.”
Meanwhile, Zii Jia could not make it a double joy for Malaysia after he went down fighting 22-20, 16-21, 19-21 to India’s 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Lakshya Sen in a nail biting 71-minute match.
Zii Jia fought back from 15-19 down in the third game to level the scores at 19-19 but the Indian stayed composed to snatch the final two points for the win.
It was the world No. 10’s fourth defeat to Lakshya in five meetings.
“I’m frustrated that I could not win the match. I played well but Lakshya was on his best form.” said a disappointed Zii Jia.
Top seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark also crashed out after losing 21-8, 18-21, 19-21 to Anthony Ginting of Indonesia.
Anthony will play Christo Popov of France today while Lakshya faces Jonatan Christie of Indonesia.
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