PETALING JAYA: The doubles pair of Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik are the only Malaysians left in the French Open after the Tokyo Olympics bronze-medallist stormed into the men’s doubles semi-finals in Paris yesterday.
The nation’s top men’s pair Aaron-Wooi Yik took more than an hour to beat India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty 18-21, 21-18, 21-17 in the quarter-finals at the Pierre de Coubertin Stadium on Friday.
The pair will now face Ko Sung Hyun-Shin Baek Cheol of South Korea for a place in the final.
The South Koreans impressed the crowd with an impressive win over second seeds Mohd Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia. They won 16-21, 21-19, 21-13 in another quarter-final clash.
The other Malaysian men’s doubles pair of Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi ended their run in the last eight when they went down 21-13, 22-10 to top seeds Marcus Fernaldi-Kevin Sanjaya.
Malaysia’s campaign in the mixed doubles also came to an end after both pairs – Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie – were beaten in their respective quarter-final matches early this morning.
Peng Soon-Liu Ying bowed out 21-10, 21-17 to Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino of Japan while Soon Huat-Shevon Lai lost 21-14, 21-10 to top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand.
In the men’s singles, world champion Kento Momota of Japan defeated Shesar Hiren of Indonesia 21-19, 21-11 to set up a semi-final clash against teammate Kanta Tsuneyama.
The other semi-final will be between fourth seed Chou Tien-chen of Taiwan and South Korean Heo Kwang-hee.