World Championships: Aaron-Wooi Yik apologise to Malaysians after semi-final loss

Malaysia men's doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik apologised to the nation after they failed to defend their World Championships title.

Chia-Soh went down 21-23, 13-21 against Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae in the semi-finals at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark, which also ended the country’s participation in this edition of the world meet.

The Malaysians had the chance to take a crucial lead when they led 19-16 in the first game, but Kang-Seo caught up to seize the advantage in added points.

Clearly affected by that, the world number four pair were not themselves in the ensuing game as their opponents strode to a fairly comfortable victory.

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Chia-Soh lamented their mistakes in the first game as the turning point of the match.

“We have to calm ourselves in those tense situations. We had a few points lead in the first game but we failed to close it out. Winning that first game clearly boosted our opponents’ confidence.

“We really had a desire to go far in this tournament, and we are disappointed. We got a bronze medal, but we wanted to deliver more. We are sorry to all Malaysians,” they said.

Earlier on Friday, national mixed and women's doubles pairs Chan Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei and Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah lost their respective matches to leave Chia-Soh as sole representatives.

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