No home joy as Aaron-Soh and Ong-Teo bow out in quarters

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s challenge has ended in the home tournament with the defeats of men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi in the quarter-finals.

Fans were left disappointed as world No. 4 and former world champions Aaron-Wooi Yik went down 21-16, 18-21, 13-21 to current world title holders Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae of South Korea at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil on Friday.

Aaron-Wooi Yik got off to stunning start by winning the first game but the third seeds Min-hyuk-Seung-jae came charging back with relentless attacking play in the second to force a deuce.

In the deciding game, the Koreans were resilient and played better than the Malaysians to reach the semis.

The Koreans will play India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty next.

Said Aaron: “We started well but we became a bit overexcited. We wanted to win too badly and we lost focus a bit of our strategy.”

It was the same disappointing fate for professionals Yew Sin-Ee Yi as they went down 15-21, 9-21 to Japan’s Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi in just 34 minutes. The former world champions will now take on Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang of China in another semis.

With a total wipeout, Malaysia’s wait to see a home winner continues.

The last doubles winners were Goh V Shem-Lim Khim Wah in 2014 while Datuk Lee Chong Wei was the last singles player to win in 2018.