KUALA LUMPUR: National men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik’s world championship title defence ended when they lost to South Koreans Kang Min Hyuk-Seo Seung Jae 21-23, 13-21 in the semi finals of the 2023 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championship in Copenhagen, Denmark early this morning Malaysian time.
In the first set, the fourth seeded Malaysians not only squandered their early four-point lead, but failed to break away from their opponents, as the South Koreans continued to match points three times before snatching two consecutive points for the win.
Emboldened by their hard-fought first set victory, the South Koreans kept the pressure up in the second set, securing a dominating lead at 11-7 and then successfully capitalising on Aaron-Wooi Yik’s errors to rake up the points and winning the game by 8 points.
World number four Aaron-Wooi Yik, the only Malaysian representative to have made it to the semi finals in this year’s championship, will have to be satisfied with the bronze as Kang-Seo advance to the final against home pair Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup, who beat third seeds Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang of China 17-21, 21-18, 21-19 in the other semi final match.
Meanwhile, first seeds Chen Qingchen-Jia Yi Fan of China will meet Indonesia’s Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti in the women’s doubles finals, while the mixed doubles final will be between fellow Chinese Zheng Si Wei-Huang Ya Qiong and South Koreans Seo Seung Jae-Chae Yu Jung.
Also, first seeded South Korean An Se Young will play Carolina Marin of Spain in the women’s singles final, and Thailand’s Kunvalut Vitidsarn will meet the winner of the semi final between Kodai Naraoka of Japan and Denmark’s Anders Antonsen for the men’s singles. -BERNAMA
