Aaron-Wooi Yik face must-win match against Canadians after loss to Indonesians

TOKYO: National men's doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik fought valiantly for 34 minutes before going down 16-21, 19-21 to Indonesia's Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan in their second Group D match in the Tokyo Olympics today.

The young Malaysian pair, who are ranked ninth in the world, showed great courage and determination, especially in the second game, but could not match the three-time world champions at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza here.

In the first game, the Malaysians managed to keep pace with the Indonesians until 13-13 before their more illustrious rivals pulled away to win 21-16.

The second game was just as thrilling, with both pairs tied at 12-12 and before the Indonesians again pulled away. Undaunted, the Malaysians gave chase and managed to close the gap to 19-20 before the classy Indonesians wrapped up the game at 21-19.

Aaron-Wooi Yik, who won their opening Group D match against South Koreans Choi Solgyu-Seo Seungjae 24-22, 21-15 on Saturday (July 24), can still make the quarter-finals, provided they beat Canadians Jason Ho-Shue-Nyl Yakura in their final group match on Tuesday (July 27).

Only the top two pairs from each group will advance to the last eight.

Commenting on today's match, Aaron said they were not satisfied with their performance as they made numerous mistakes to hand the Indonesians easy points.

"In the second game, we played well but, after the interval, we failed to keep our momentum," he said, adding that they would go all out against the Canadians.

He said that they have never met the Canadian pair but would watch video clips of their opponents' matches to study their playing style.

Meanwhile, national mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying ended their Tokyo Olympic outing with a third straight defeat in Group D after going down 13-21, 19-21 to China's world number three pair of Wang Yilyu-Huang Dong Ping today.

Peng Soon, when met after the match, said their performance this time was affected by their over-eagerness to win.

"We played all out, but our results at the Tokyo Olympic are disappointing," he said.

-- BERNAMA