WTF: Japan & Thai test for Tang Jie-Ee Wei, Aaron-Wooi Yik to face bogey pair
Ammar Hakim
December 12, 2023 10:26 MYT
December 12, 2023 10:26 MYT
Chen Tang Jie who won the Best Dressed Men award at the World Tour Finals (WTF) will have a sizable test with Toh Ee Wei in the mixed doubles, while Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik have two Chinese pairs for company.
Chen-Toh will be up against Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping (China), Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino (Japan) and Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai (Thailand) in Group A of the mixed doubles category.
Despite being paired against these formidable pairs, the world number nine Malaysians will not discount their chances of making it to the semi-finals.
They have beaten Feng-Huang in their solitary meeting at the Thailand Open this year, and also overcame Thai pair Dechapol-Sapsiree once in their three meetings this year, which came at the Arctic Open.
It is against Watanabe-Higashino where they will need to devise a strategy to beat for the first time, having lost on both occasions at the Singapore Open and World Championships in June and August respectively.
Chia-Toh will fancy their chances of making out of Group A in the men’s doubles category after they were housed with Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang (China), Liu Yu Chen-Ou Xuan Yi (China) and Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi (Japan).
The Malaysians’ biggest test will come against world number one pair Liang-Wang, who have beaten them in both the India and China Open finals this year.
Soh even pointed out the pair as their biggest challengers having lost five times in six encounters, adding he watches videos of them before going to bed at night as part of his analysis.
The draw and gala dinner took place in Hangzhou, China on Monday evening, with the group stage action set to begin on Wednesday.