Badminton

Aaron-Wooi Yik won't be 'sent home' amid All England flop

KUALA LUMPUR: Despite Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik's All England flop, BA of Malaysia doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky has not lost faith in the world champions.

And the Indonesian maestro wants the world No 2 to remain in Europe to complete their third and final assignment at the Swiss Open next week.

Earlier, there was speculation that BAM could send Aaron-Wooi Yik home after their All England loss, which had happened to some underperforming national players in the past.

Last year, Rexy had cut short Nur Izzuddin Rumsani-Goh Sze Fei's trip by withdrawing them from the Hylo Open in Germany after their poor back-to-back results at the Denmark Open and French Open.

Aaron-Wooi Yik have yet to win even a single match in the European leg thus far following their 21-18, 14-21, 21-13 defeat by Indonesia's Leo Rolly Carnando-Daniel Marthin in the All England on Wednesday.

At the German Open last week, they received a bye to the second round before being shown the exit by Japan's Akira Koga-Taichi Saito.

Rexy, however, believes that Aaron-Wooi Yik have what it takes to bounce back in Basel, and he wants them to make the most of that last opportunity before heading home.

Rexy said though the Swiss Open is just a Super 300 event, winning it can do their confidence a whole world of good. Aaron-Wooi Yik were semi-finalists in the recent two Swiss Open editions.

"They will definitely play in the Swiss Open, there's no question about it," he said.

"I hope they can go all the way to win the title (Swiss Open) there. It will give them the much-needed confidence boost," said Rexy.

On Aaron-Wooi Yik's first loss in five meetings to Leo-Daniel, Rexy said they were caught off guard by a change of game plan by their opponents and failed to cope with it.

"In the final game, Leo-Daniel had adopted the same approach as us by not playing in front of the net, forcing Aaron-Wooi Yik to play in their own boxes. They made a mistake there by playing to their opponents' rhythm rather than slowing them down."

Leo was delighted to have finally broken the duck against Aaron-Wooi Yik. "We put everything into play today whatever we've learnt and rectified our previous mistakes, and it paid off," he said on the All Indonesia Badminton Association website.

"We went on the offensive mode and not defend too much. To be able to win for the first time after four consecutive defeats, it has surely boosted our self-belief."

Having won the Indonesia Masters and Thailand Masters recently, Leo-Rolly are bidding to make it three victories on the trot this week.

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