Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik will go into the biggest match of their careers on Sunday after they produced another sizzling performance to reach the BWF World Championships final.
Chia-Soh needed 77 minutes to overcome Indian pair Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy 20-22, 21-18, 21-16 in a charged up affair that produced moments of brilliance, tension and more importantly a priceless victory.
To become the country's first world champions, Chia-Soh have to beat the seasoned Indonesian pairing of Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan.
But they will once again be able to derive plenty of confidence from beating their semi-final opponents, most importantly not allowing the pressure to consume them during the crucial moments.
The Malaysians had won their matches in all five meetings against the Indians, who were bent on changing that record on this stage.
It started off a tight affair, but Shetty-Rankireddy did well to keep their noses in front for most of the game.
Chia-Soh stayed in the hunt and managed to force deuce, but two mistakes handed the lead to their opponents.
The Malaysians seized the initiative in the second game, but saw their lead cut to only one point at the interval.
They got better after that, pulling away to seal the win when Shetty left the court for a racquet change.
The deciding game started off point for point, with the Malaysians again taking a one point lead at the break.
Again they did well to pull away after that, forcing the issue to the Commonwealth Games champions into unforced errors to come away with the big win.
This means Chia-Soh are the first Malaysians to reach a World Championships final in seven years, since Lee Chong Wei last did it in 2015.
They now become the fifth pair to try capturing the men's doubles title, after Razif-Jalani Sidek, Cheah Soon Kit-Soo Beng Kiang, Cheah-Yap Kim Hock and Koo Kien Kiat-Tan Boon Heong all failed in their quests previously.
