NEW DELHI, Jan 22 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia’s men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik came back from a set down to defeat Indonesian rivals Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto and storm into the final of the India Open Saturday.
The Malaysians defeated the World No 1 pair 11-21, 21-15, 21-16 in a 53-minute match played at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall.
“I think we played our game today. We believed in ourselves (to make a comeback after losing the first set),” Aaron said.
Their win was in stark contrast with the fortunes of national top women’s pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, who found their semifinal opponents from Japan, Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida just too good Saturday.
They were ousted by the World No 2 pair 14-21, 16-21.
The Malaysians told Bernama that they could not match their Japanese opponents in speed during the match, which lasted 43 minutes.
“I think their speed was faster than ours. We were not able to keep pace,” Pearly said.
— NNN-BERNAMA
