Fan support pushes Aaron-Wooi Yik through after going a game down

 

Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik in action against Ben Lane-Sean Vendy of Great Britain in Group A of the 2024 Paris Olympics badminton tournament today. (Bernama pic)

PARIS: 

Reigning men’s doubles bronze medallists Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, boosted by strong cheers from the spectators, overcame an early setback to win their first outing at the 2024 Paris Olympics today.

Aaron-Wooi Yik, ranked world No 4, had to come back from a game down to beat Ben Lane-Sean Vendy of Great Britain 19-21, 21-16, 21-11 in their Group A match at the fully-packed Porte de La Chapelle arena. The English pair are ranked 18th in the world.

Wooi Yik said they managed to secure the hard fought victory by staying together and lifting each other in the 72-minute battle.

“Quite a struggle in the first game, in the last meeting they managed a win, so there were tense moments. We tried at each point, not to give easy points to them. From there we bucked up and motivated each other for the victory.

The strong support from the fans provided an added motivation to us when we were trailing. We went to Tokyo as underdogs, and managed to beat a few favourites, we wanted to keep that same level here,

 he said after the match.

Aaron-Wooi Yik have won four of their five previous matches against Lane-Vendy, but suffered defeat in their last meeting at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

After winning the 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze, Aaron-Wooi Yik bagged the 2022 World Championship title, also in Tokyo, to be considered among the favourites to win the country’s first gold medal in the Olympics.

Aaron admitted that huge expectations do come with pressure for them. 

The pressure is always there, I feel that is normal but we have to be calm and composed and play our normal game, and enjoy the game,

 he said.

He added that they always consulted psychologist Frederick Tan on handling the pressure.

Tomorrow, Aaron-Wooi Yik will take on the Canadian pair of Adam Dong-Nyl Yakura, who were thrashed 5-21, 12-21 by top seeds Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang of China. Victory will ensure Aaron-Wooi Yik a ticket to the quarter-finals.

In the women’s doubles, Pearly Tan-M Thinaah were unable to match China’s world number one pair Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan, losing 17-21, 20-22 in 55-minute despite fighting hard in a Group A match.

It was their seventh defeat in eight encounters against the Chinese pair.

The pair, champions of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, must win their remaining matches to secure their place in the last eight. Their next opponents are Japan’s world number six Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara tomorrow, and world number nine Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti of Indonesia. - FMT