Chia (right) and Soh go for a shot in their men’s doubles badminton group stage match against South Korea’s Choi Sol-gyu and South Korea’s Seo Seung-jae during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza in Tokyo on July 24, 2021. – AFP photo
TOKYO (July 24): National men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik showed nerves of steel to stun world number seven Choi Solgyu-Seo Seungjae of South Korea 24-22, 21-15 at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza, here today.
The world number nine Malaysians needed 43 minutes to tame the South Koreans in their Group D match to boost their chances of advancing to the knockout stage.
The 2019 SEA Games champions had to dig deep into their reserves in the tightly-contested first game, which saw both pairs fight neck-and-neck until the score was tied at 20-20.
The Malaysians, thankfully, kept their cool to win 24-22.
The battle was just as intense at the start of the second game before Aaron-Wooi Yik managed to find an extra gear to romp to a 21-15 win, thanks partly to mistakes on the part of the South Koreans.
The Malaysians have now beaten the South Koreans three times in five meetings.
Earlier, in another Group D match, world number two Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia needed just 25 minutes to cruise past Canada’s Jason Ho-Shue-Nyl Yakura 21-12, 21-11.
Aaron-Wooi Yik face a daunting task as they will be up against the Indonesians on Monday (July 26), before concluding their group fixture against the Canadians on Tuesday (July 27).
Only the top two pairs from each group will advance to the quarter-finals.
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