Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik will play in the men's doubles bronze medal match at the 2020 Olympic Games after losing to China's Li Jun Hui-Liu Yu Chen 22-24, 12-21 in the semi-finals on Friday.

Hopes were high on the world number nine pair to create another upset against the third seeds, after their sterling performance to dispose of world number one pair Kevin Sanja Sukamuljo-Marcus Fernaldi Sukamuljo in the last eight.

Chia-Soh started encouragingly enough, applying consistent pressure in the opening exchanges to take an 11-10 lead at the interval.

But Liu-Li soon grew into the game and began to match the Malaysians point for point.

17-17 soon became 20-20 to force deuce, which the Chinese duo eventually clinched at 24-22.

That setback clearly derailed the Malaysians, who simply could not find their rhythm in the second game and left the Chinese to launch a full on attacking assault.

The second game was over within 14 minutes for the Chinese pair cruised to a 21-13 triumph to seal victory and storm into the final.

They will face Chinese Taipei duo Wang Chi-lin-Lee Yang for the coveted gold medal.

Chia-Soh will still stand a chance to deliver Malaysia’s first medal in TOkyo when they play Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan in the bronze medal match.

The world number two pair had beaten the Malaysians in straight games in their group match.

(Photo: asiana.my)