KUALA LUMPUR: National doubles Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani are the only local hopes left standing in the Malaysia Open following the quarter-final stage today.
World No 6 Aaron-Wooi Yik, who are still in search of a maiden Open title, defeated Indonesia's world No 3 Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan 21-13, 20-22, 21-19 while Sze Fei-Izzuddin ousted recently crowned Indonesia Open champions Liu Yu Chen-Ou Xian Yi of China 21-11, 22-20 at the Axiata Arena.
In the semi-finals tomorrow, Aaron-Wooi Yik will face world champions Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi of Japan, while Sze Fei-Izzuddin take on world No 7 Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia.
The Indonesians, who won the Indonesia Masters title recently, had earlier ousted last year's World Championships bronze medal winners, Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi 21-13, 21-9.
Olympic bronze medallists Aaron-Wooi Yik believe they have everything to fight for, especially with the home advantage.
Despite having a poor head-to-head record (4-2) against Hoki-Kobayashi, Aaron said: "Head-to-head records are past results, let's leave them there and focus on what's ahead.
"We have the home advantage here, and we've got two more steps to go if we want to win. We start from zero again, and we will give our best in the next match."
In the women's doubles, Anna Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing's fairytale run came to an end in the quarter-finals, going down 21-15, 23-21 to world No 5 Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara of Japan.