Malaysia men’s doubles ace Aaron Chia knows the pressure of stepping into the upcoming World Championships (August 21-27) as defending champions will be telling, but is adamant on using that as motivation.
Chia and partner Soh Wooi Yik ended the country’s 45-year wait for a badminton world champion when they beat Hendra Setiawan-Mohammad Ahsan in last year’s final.
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But things were not all smooth sailing since, with the pair still yet to taste a triumph on the World Tour despite reaching two finals this year.
As they prepare for battle in Copenhagen, Denmark in less than two weeks, Chia was well aware of the task at hand.
“The pressure is always there. So we need to use that motivation as defending champions and perform to our level. We are still struggling with consistency, it’s been our roller coaster journey so far. But we are preparing the best we can.
“We could face the Danish pair in our first match. It will be good to play opponents who can give us a good challenge to prepare us for the next round,” Chia told Stadium Astro.
The fourth seeds are given a first round bye and will face the winners of Jeppe Bay-Lasse Molhede and Ivan Rusev-Iliyan Stoynov in the round of 32 which they are expected to win.
If all goes well, the Malaysians will face reigning Olympic champions Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin, who recently won the Japan Open.
Besides Chia-Soh, the other Malaysian men’s doubles in action are Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi and Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun.
Tee was pleasantly surprised with their inclusion to the world meet, and wants to make full use of the opportunity.
“Our draw is tough, but we will prepare well. We play a French pair [Lucas Corvee-Ronan Labar] who are strong.
“We don’t have any specific target, but just want to play our best and hopefully that will take us to the last-16 or the quarter-finals,” said the Taipei Open champion.
