Narrow win for Aaron-Wooi Yik at World Tour Finals opener

Narrow win for Aaron-Wooi Yik at World Tour Finals opener

The world No 2 men’s doubles pair beat Indonesians Fajar Alfian-Shohibul Fikri in three games in their first group match.

Aaron Chia Soh Wooi Yik
Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik can secure a semi-final spot with a win in one of their remaining Group B matches. (Bernama pic)
PETALING JAYA:
National men’s doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik opened their World Tour Finals campaign in Hangzhou, China, today with a hard-fought victory over Indonesian pair Fajar Alfian-Shohibul Fikri.

The world No 2 pair prevailed 22-24, 21-18, 21-19 in 82 minutes against their eighth-ranked pair, a crucial win in what has been dubbed as the “group of death” in the RM12.5 million championships.

They will face China’s world No 5 duo Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang tomorrow, followed by India’s world No 3 pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty on Friday in the round robin group matches.

A win against either pair would guarantee them a place in the semi-finals.

It was Aaron-Wooi Yik’s first victory over Fajar-Shohibul in their three encounters to date.

The season-ending World Tour Finals offers prize money of US$252,000 (RM1.03 million) to the winners of the doubles events, with the runners-up taking home US$120,000 (RM490,596).

The semi-finalists will receive US$60,000 (RM245,298), while the pairs finishing third and fourth in the group stages will earn US$39,000 (RM159,443) and US$21,000 (RM85,854), respectively.

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