World champs Aaron-Wooi Yik crash out of Malaysia Open

KUALA LUMPUR: 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 number three Aaron-Wooi Yik went down 10-21, 21-23 to Liu Yu Chen-Ou Xuan Yi of China, much to the disappointment of over 2,000 spectators at the Axiata Arena, here.

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

"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.

"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," said Aaron.

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