Aaron-Wooi Yik living the dream, just like their idols
PETALING JAYA: National men’s doubles shuttler Soh Wooi Yik grew up wanting to be as successful as former world No. 1 Koo Kien KeatTan Boon Heong.
And it looks like his childhood dream is set to be reality as Wooi Yik oozed class when he combined forces with Aaron Chia to march into the All-England quarter-finals in superb style at the Arena Birmingham on Thursday.
The duo made their impressive debut in the longest-running badminton tournament when they bulldozed past world No. 6 Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark 21-19, 21-16 in the second round.
It was their third win against the Danes - having beaten them at the World Championships in Nanjing last year and at the Malaysian Masters earlier in January.
They now have a mouth-watering clash against 2017 world champions Liu Cheng-Zhang Nan of China.
The 21-year-old Wooi Yik said he saw his idols Kien Keat-Boon Heong in action 12 years ago when they demolished Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng of China to win the All-England title in 2007.
And that has inspired him to follow their path.
I’ve never missed watching the All-England each year since I watched Kien Keat-Boon Heong win,” said Wooi Yik.
“Now, I’m playing in this prestigious tournament for the first time and I’ve reached the quarter-finals, I’m living the dream!
“They are my idols, I enjoyed watching them in action because of their entertaining and high-quality game. Their victory in 2007 has inspired me a lot.
“At this stage, Aaron and I have no fear and anything is possible for us. Koo and Tan captured the AllEngland when they were young too and we wish to follow in their footsteps.”
Wooi Yik-Aaron made heads turn when they reached the quarter-finals of the world meet last year and they have never looked back since, consistently reaching the last eight in seven of their last 10 tournaments and entered the All-England with their career-best world ranking of No. 18.
“We’re delighted with how we’ve performed this week. It’s been a little bit of struggle to earn our breakthrough after Nanjing, but we didn’t give up and we’ve been playing better and better,” said Wooi Yik.
“The key to our improvement is our good communication. Aaron and I always sit down and talk whenever we lose or need to fix a problem, rather than pointing our fingers at each others.”
Meanwhile, their seniors and world No. 14 Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong also had earlier checked into the quarter-finals after downing Japan’s Hiroyuki Endo-Yuta Watanabe 21-18, 21-19. The independent shuttlers take on Fajar Alfian-Muhd Rian Ardianto of Indonesia for a place in the semis.
It was the end of the road for independent shuttlers Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying as the 2016 runners-up lost 15-21, 21-16, 21-23 to Indonesia’s newly-formed partnership Tontowi Ahmad-Winny Oktavina Kandow.
But all is not lost in the mixed doubles competition as Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie kept the Malaysia flag flying.
Third time’s certainly is the charm for Soon Huat-Shevon as they finally ended their winless streak against England’s Marcus Ellis-Lauren Smith by beating them 21-15, 26-24 to set up a match against Wang Yilyu-Huang Dongping of China.
Liew Daren’s challenge in the men’s singles ended when he went down tamely 8-21, 10-21 to defending champion Shi Yuqi of China.