NATIONAL men’s doubles Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik stormed into the second round of the Hong Kong Open yesterday and quickly reminded themselves not be distracted by the prospect of winning gold at the Philippines Sea Games.
More so judging by the way the Malaysian World No 12 disposed of 2015 Sea Games champions Ricky Karandasuwardi-Angga Pratama of Indonesia 21-13, 21-14 in the first round yesterday.
Their latest feat comes just a week after they had stunned this year’s Sea Games favourites Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto and reigning world champions Muhammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan — both from Indonesia - to reach the semi-finals of the Fuzhou China Open.
This raised hopes of the Malaysians’ gold medal prospect at the biennial Games in Manila from Nov 30-Dec 11.
Aaron-Wooi Yik were, however, quick to play down such expectations.
‘Our performance at the recent China Open fuelled such expectations,’ Aaron told Timesport.
‘But we don’t want to be distracted by the Sea Games, just yet.
‘We are enjoying a good run of form and we’d like to stay grounded and remain focused on improving ourselves and our ranking.
‘If we can do that, then the Sea Games will take care of itself.’
In March, Aaron-Wooi Yik came close to bagging their first major title at the All England, but Ahsan-Hendra stood in their way in the final.
Since then, the national No 1 have struggled for consistency, until last week’s breakthrough.
Aaron-Wooi Yik will face World No 9 Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark today for a place in the Hong Kong Open quarter-finals.
The Malaysians defeated the Danes twice this year, but lost in their latest encounter at the French Open last month.
Also through to today’s men’s doubles second round are national No 2 Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi, who came back from a game down to beat South Korea’s Kang Ming Hyuk-Kim Jae Hwan 17-21, 25-23, 21-16 in the first round.
Yew Sin-Ee Yi will be up against fifth seeds Fajar-Rian today.
Meanwhile, 2016 Rio Olympic Games silver medallists Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong crashed out in the first round after going down 21-12, 21-15 to Russians Vladimir Ivanov-Ivan Sozonov.
Malaysia’s interest in women’s doubles also ended yesterday when Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean and Vivian Hoo-Yap Cheng Wen fell at the first hurdle.