[UPDATED] M’sia Masters: Malaysians stop short at home-soil semis, again

KUALA LUMPUR – Their journey ends in the semi-finals of the Malaysia Masters today as national men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik lost to Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto.

Despite losing in the first set, the Malaysians tried to make a comeback but the Indonesians proved to be unbeatable and conquered the match, 21-14, 19-21, 21-10 in 49 minutes.

“The third set was the hardest because we were going against the win. It was a lot of pressure coming from them, which causes us to make many unforced errors,” Aaron told reporters after the match at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil.

Wooi Yik also noted that the defeat was a learning process for them and will continue to study their opponents’ tactics.

“We will study their gameplay more after this because we have fought them many times before.

“Their tactics are so stable that it made it very hard for us to find any error and score a point,” Wooi Yik added.

At the recently concluded Malaysia Open, compatriots Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani also fell into the hands of the Indonesians in the semi-finals. 

Earlier, national women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah were knocked out of the semi-finals of the Malaysia Masters today after they went down to top seeds, world number one pair Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan of China.

Towards the end of the second set, Thinaah was seen having a minor injury on her left ankle, which she tried to overcome throughout the match.

However, the pair could not match up to their opponents and lost 21-10, 21-19 in 42 minutes.

“We gained a lot of experience playing against them and improved ourselves match by match.

“We admit that we made some mistakes, but we could come back stronger,” said Pearly. – The Vibes, July 9, 2022