KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — The country’s number one men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik rebounded from a shaky start to fight their way into the second round of the Malaysia Masters 2026 at the Unifi Arena today.
Top seeds Chia-Soh were caught off guard in their opening match against Singapore’s Wesley Koh-Kubo Junsuke, dropping the first game 19-21.
However, the 2022 world champions regrouped strongly, delighting home fans as they dominated the next two games 21-10, 21-12 in 45 minutes to seal their first win over the Singaporean pair.
Speaking after the match, Soh admitted that they were below their best in the opening game but were able to capitalise on their opponents’ errors in the next two games.
“In the second and third sets we played just like the first game, just that we seized the advantage when our opponent made numerous errors,” he told the media at the mixed zone.
The world No. 2 pair will next face the winner of tomorrow’s first round tie between Julien Maio-William Villeger of France and the Scottish duo Christopher Grimley-Matthew Grimley.
Meanwhile, two other national pairs, Wan Arif Wan Junaidi-Yap Roy King and Kang Khai Xing-Aaron Tai, will square off against each other in the second round after both pairs cleared the opening round of the Super 500 event.
Arif-Yap, seeded fifth, survived a rubber set duel against He Zhi-Wei-Huang Jui-Hsuan of Taiwan, 21-19, 15-21, 21-11, while Kang-Tai came from behind to oust Lai Po Yu-Tsai Fu Cheng from Taiwan, 17-21, 21-19, 21-16.
Third seeds and professional pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Mohd Rumsani also marched into the second round after defeating Indonesia’s Muh Putra Erwiansyah-Bagas Maulana 21-10, 21-14 in 30 minutes.
Despite the straight-games win, Goh admitted there were moments when the Indonesian pair troubled them, but was pleased they managed to close out the match.
Goh-Izzuddin will be involved in an all-Malaysian second round affair against another professional duo Chia Wei Jie-Teo Ee Yi who got the better of Canadian pair Kevin Lee-Ty Alexander Lindeman 21-18, 21-15.
