Indonesian Scratch Pair Deny Aaron-Wooi Yik To Win 2025 China Open Title

KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 (Bernama) -- Indonesian scratch pair Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Shohibul Fikri managed to defy all odds and beat national doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik to win the 2025 China Open men’s doubles title.

World number two pair Aaron-Wooi Yik failed to match the synergy of the Indonesian pair and trailed 1-9 before losing 15-21 in the first game of their final match at the Olympic Sports Centre Gynmasium in Changzhou, China.

Sensing a chance at victory, the Indonesians, who were put together only last week at the Japan Open, piled on the pressure in the second game, and confidently marched to a 21-14 victory against the Malaysians in 35 minutes.

Today’s loss means Aaron-Wooi Yik failed to add another title to their three titles - the Asian Championship, the Thailand Open and the Singapore Open - this season.

Meanwhile, Wooi Yik admitted that the pair struggled to adapt to the Indonesians’ playing style and were surprised with the variety of shots and control their rivals displayed.

“They controlled the the shuttle because Court One is quite windy, so the big difference is they control very well the shuttle and in the front, first three shot and is a most obvious, very important for our pair or even them because our style is almost the same. So I think they did very, very well today,” he said in a voice recording shared by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) tonight.

Aaron concurred with Wooi Yik, praising the Indonesian pair’s speed and quality in shot execution and said that adapting to their style would take some time.

“They played really well and like you can see every shot is really (of) quality and we couldn’t really handle their shots. What I mean is like because (they are) scratch pair, we always need some time for a new pairing to adapt and to analyse their gameplay.

“This week, their run was like god-like… they they (beat the) world number one, you know, and yesterday. So I think, we still need some time to analyse their game,” he said.

Wooi Yik also shared that the pair would take a calm and grounded approach ahead of the 2025 BWF World Championships in Paris in August.

“We know (there are) many expectations for us...you just keep calm because we just believe past is the past. I think now our recent gameplay is different.

“So we just believe each other, our gameplay, just believe in coach training and still have a month. I think we just keep this rhythm go on to the World Championship. I think we don’t expect too much … I believe we can make it,” he said.

The gold medal still remains the pair’s main goal, but they intend to take it one match at a time for now, Aaron added.

-- BERNAMA