Men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik may have to navigate past some familiar rivals to keep their gold medal dreams alive at the World Championships in Paris from Aug 25-31.
The 2022 world champions are targeting a second crown, but could face either China’s Paris Olympics silver medallists Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang or India’s Asian Games champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty in the quarter-finals.
Weikeng-Wang Chang shattered the world No. 2 pair’s Olympic gold hopes last August at the Adidas Arena in Port de la Chapelle – the same venue for this year’s world meet – by defeating them in the semi-finals. Aaron-Wooi Yik also fell to Satwiksairaj-Chirag in the last four of the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou.
Before any potential blockbuster clashes, Aaron-Wooi Yik, who received a first-round bye, will begin their campaign in the second round against either Scotland’s Christopher Grimley-Mathew Grimley or Spain’s Daniel Franco-Rodrigo Sanjurjo.
A victory could set up an all-Malaysian third-round battle against debutants Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi, provided the latter overcome Japan’s Kenya Mitsuhashi-Hiroki Okamura and Thailand’s Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Kittinupong Kedren in the earlier rounds.
