Malaysia’s campaign at the Japan Open ended on Friday after men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik lost their quarter-finals duel, which also extended their wait for a first BWF World Tour title.

Chia-Soh contested for 65 minutes against home pair Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi before succumbing to a 21-10, 15-21, 16-21 defeat in Tokyo.

It is a loss that should be hard to swallow for the Malaysians, who dominated the opening game to win and looked to be cruising midway through the second game before the Japanese started charging back.

Chia-Soh’s 13-10 advantage was quickly erased, and the world champions could only muster two further points as their opponents produced a trailblazing finish to level proceedings.

The deciding game also saw Chia-Soh playing catch-up throughout the contest, and a temporary halt by the umpire due to flashlights interference from the crowd failed to dampen the momentum of Hoki-Kobayashi.

The fourth seeds soon closed out the victory to end Malaysia’s only hopes of coming away with something from this Super 750 event.

It also summed up yet another disappointing week for the Malaysian contingent that saw no shuttlers progress beyond the last eight at last week’s Korea Open.

Next up is the Australian Open next week, where most of the same contingent will head to.