KUALA LUMPUR – Fresh off their World Championships victory, national badminton men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik has withdrawn from the Japan Open, which is set to begin in Osaka tomorrow.
The world No. 6 pair has decided not to stay in Japan for the upcoming tournament, with coach Rexy Mainaky saying that Aaron had a minor shoulder injury and did not want to aggravate it further.
“Aaron has a muscle strain below his shoulder and armpit area. Furthermore, both players are emotionally overwhelmed and could use a break to recover,” he told the media.
Yesterday at the World Championships final, Aaron-Wooi Yik stunned third-ranked Indonesian pair Muhammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan to give Malaysia’s its first BWF World Championships title.
Speaking on their momentous victory, Aaron said the turning point during the competition came after their semi-final win against India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty.
After failing to reach the finals of the past six tournaments, Aaron-Wooi Yik took down the Indian pair 20-22, 21-18, 21-16 and entered the finals.
“The semi-finals was the biggest hurdle for us. We have been struggling in the past at that stage and when we won, it gave us a lot more confidence moving forward,” said Aaron.
He added that their failure to clinch gold at this year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games gave them the extra motivation needed to go all the way at the World Championships.
“We targeted gold in Birmingham, but we only got bronze. To me that is a failure.
“But maybe it was meant to happen that way. The hurt we went through after that defeat made us want to bounce back at the world championships, and we did,” added the 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist.
He also said when they had match point, the thought of becoming world champions had not set in yet.
“We were not thinking about winning at that moment. We still focused on the points and stayed with our match play strategy.”
Aaron also noted that after becoming world champions, things are only going to get more difficult as opponents will try to throw them off their game.
“Nothing is going to be easy in the future. Becoming world champions, everyone is going to analyse our game, and we need to be prepared with all rising players who will be out to defeat us,” he added.
Meanwhile, his teammate Soh Wooi Yik said even though the duo are riding high on their historic victory, it is important to stay grounded and not lose focus moving forward.
“Although we are world champions now, we will always remember the struggles we went through to get here and the feeling of winning.
“With this experience, we want to work harder, so we don’t have to go through the struggles again,” he said.
Even though they managed to take down three-time World Championships winners Ahsan-Setiawan, Wooi Yik said the national pair had not displayed its full potential.
“I could see myself improve from the first round until the finals. But even then, I do not think it was our best game when we won gold.
“We were not confident with all of our shots, but we overcame it together as a team with our coaches.
“There is still room for improvement. When we get back to training, I want to get better and level up even more,” he said.
The shuttlers thanked their coaches, especially Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) doubles coaching director Rexy, who said strategy was the key in delivering the country’s first World Championships title.
After the win, Rexy knelt down before Aaron-Wooi Yik, to which he said it was his way of congratulating the players on the historic win.
Meanwhile, BAM president said the pair is also set to receive a whopping RM400,000 incentive for winning the world title. – The Vibes, August 29, 2022
