Singapore: Malaysia’s young men’s doubles pair of Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik who had qualified for the World Championships that will be held in Nanjing, China, from July 30 to August 7, was off to strong start in the Singapore Open first round as they crushed a Mandiraju Anilkumar Raju/Venkat Gaurav Prasad of India 21-16, 21-16 in 24 minutes on Wednesday.
Aaron Chia/ Soh Wooi Yik (21 and 20-year-old respectively), started their men’s doubles partnership on November 2017, and have now showing great potentials in the men’s doubles category.
“This has been an amazing season for us. We’ve entered the final of three tournaments (2017 India International Challenge, 2018 Vietnam International Challenge and 2018 Malaysia International Challenge). We were able to represent the country at Thomas Cup Finals in May, and now we are going to play in the World Championships.”
“We did not expect to qualify the World Championships. The key to our success is probably because we are still young, and we don’t feel a lot of pressure when playing.”
“We are always excited every time we enter the court and our main goal is to pull off some upsets against World’s top pair,” said Aaron Chia.
Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik qualified for the World Championships following the withdrawal of several pairs from other countries.
Meanwhile, in the Singapore Open men’s singles event, both Daren Liew and Chong Wei Feng of Malaysia also made it to the second round.
Daren Liew, who has entered the Nanjing World Championships based on merit, shocked No. 3 seed Vincent Wong Wing Ki from Hong Kong 21-14, 21-16 in the Singapore Open first round and will face Ihsan Maulana Mustofa of Indonesia next.
On the other hand, Chong Wei Feng got pushed to the brink, saving two match point in a three-set win over Thai player Suppanyu Avihingsanon 21-16, 12-21, 22-20. Chong will take on another Thai player, Pannawit Thongnuam in the second round.
