KUALA LUMPUR: The nation's top men's doubles player Soh Wooi Yik is optimistic that the partnership of Choong Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal Nazri can last long after clinching their first title at the 2023 Syed Modi International Badminton Championship in Lucknow, India, on Sunday (December 3).
Wooi Yik described the achievement of the 69th-ranked pair in the tournament at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium as a good start for them to stay together, as they had frequently changed partners before.
"This is a chance for them to prove themselves and hopefully, they can break into the top 30 and learn more. Since they have already secured a title, I believe the coach will pay more attention to them.
"As this is a new pair, it's not easy to win a title; I feel they have the potential," he said after a training session here.
Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal, who were unseeded, came from behind in the first set to upset the top seeds from Japan, Akira Koga-Taichi Saito, with scores of 18-21, 21-18, 21-16, to emerge as the Super 300 tournament champions.
Meanwhile, Wooi Yik said he and his partner, Aaron Chia, will treat every match in the 2023 World Tour Finals in Hangzhou, China, from December 13 to 17, as a final.
He also expressed hope that they could overcome the group stage and advance to the semi-finals for the first time in their fourth appearance at the 2023 World Tour Finals.
The world number three pair were previously eliminated in the group stage in the 2019, 2020, and last year's editions.
The other seven qualifying pairs for this year's edition are the world number one pair from China, Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang, Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto (Indonesia), Kang Min Hyuk-Seo Seung Jae (South Korea), Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi (Japan), Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen (Denmark), Liu Yu Chen-Ou Xuan Yi (China), and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri-Bagas Maulana (Indonesia).
According to the competition format, all eight pairs will be divided into two groups. Only the top two pairs from each group will advance to the semi-finals.
The group stage draw is scheduled to take place on Monday.
The tournament offers total prize money of US$2.5 million (RM11.68 million) to the winners. — BERNAMA