KUALA LUMPUR: World No 2 Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik will have plenty of explaining to do after slumping to their second early exit in as many weeks, this time at the All England, as they suffered their worst-ever outing in the world's oldest tournament.
Hopes were high on the reigning world champions to bounce back from their German Open setback last week, but they went down 21-18, 14-21, 21-13 to the high-flying Leo Rolly Carnando-Daniel Marthin of Indonesia instead.
To add to Aaron-Wooi Yik's disappointment, the first defeat in five outings ended their perfect head-to-head record against the former world junior champions.
While Leo-Daniel were clearly the better pair on paper based on their form of late, Aaron-Wooi Yik's tame display in the third game where they were trailing right from the start certainly didn't go well with the fans.
Since their sensational debut in 2019, where they finished runners-up to Indonesia's Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan, Aaron-Wooi Yik's performance have declined ever since.
They reached the quarter-finals in 2020 and were ousted in the last 16 last year. They did not play in 2021.
It remains to be seen if Aaron-Wooi Yik will get to see out their Europe trip by travelling to Basel for their third event, the Swiss Open next week.
The BA of Malaysia have a policy whereby players would have their competition stint cut off if they fared poorly in earlier tournaments.
In Mulheim last week, Aaron-Wooi Yik were the top seeds but were sent packing by Japan's Akira Koga-Taichi Saito.
SELECTED RESULTS
FIRST ROUND
Men's singles: Lee Zii Jia (Mas) bt Sitthikorn Thammasin (Tha) 21-12, 21-15; Kodai Naraoka (Jpn) bt Lu Guang Zu (Chn) 11-7, ret; Shi Yu Qi (Chn) bt Kanta Tsuneyama (Jpn) 21-16, 21-11;
Women's singles: Tai Tzu Ying (Tpe) bt Kim Ga Eun (Kor) 21-10, 21-12; Zhang Yi Man (Chn) bt P.V. Sindhu (Ind) 21-17, 21-11; Carolina Marin (Spa) bt Kirsty Gilmour (Sco) 21-19, 21-17;
Men's doubles: Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto (Ina) bt Kang Min Hyuk-Seo Seung Jae (Kor) 20-22, 21-12, 21-19; Leo Rolly Carnando-Daniel Marthin (Ina) bt Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik (Mas) 21-18, 14-21, 21-13;
Mixed doubles: Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino (Jpn) bt Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet (Hkg) 21-17, 21-17; Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai (Tha) bt Mathias Christiansen-Alexandra Boje (Den) 21-12, 22-20.