Paris: Following the conclusion of the men’s doubles group stage, the quarterfinal draw was revealed. As the runners-up from Group A, Malaysian World No. 3 men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik will face the top seeds from Group C, India’s World No. 5 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty, in the 2024 Paris Olympics quarterfinals.
Based on their head-to-head record, the Chia/Soh duo has 8 wins and 3 losses against the Indian pair, however, in their last three encounters, Chia/Soh lost all of them in straight sets. Their most recent match was at the India Open in January of this year, where they lost 18-21, 14-21.
If Chia and Soh advance to the semifinals, they will face the winners between Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang from China and the Indonesian duo of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto. There is a strong possibility that Chia/Soh may face Liang/Wang again, following their Group A encounter.
In the men’s doubles “Group of Death” (Group D), defending champions from Chinese Taipei, Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin, advanced as group champions by beating Liu Yuchen and Ou Xuanyi of China 17-21, 21-17, 24-22 in their last group match; while Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen overcame Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi of Japan 21-19, 22-20 to emerge as the runners-up of Group D.
Lee/Wang will face Thailand’s Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kedren in the quarterfinals. Another quarterfinal match will see Group B’s top seeds, South Korea’s Seo Seung-Jae and Kang Min-hyuk, facing Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen.
For the women’s doubles competition, following the end of the group stage matches, the draw for the women’s doubles quarterfinals was conducted. Malaysian women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan, runners-up in Group A, will face South Korea’s Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong in the quarterfinals.
If Tan/Muralitharan manage to overcome Kim/Kong, they are expected to meet China’s top seeds, Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan, in the semifinals. The latter pair will face Bulgaria’s Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva in the other quarterfinal match.
In the lower half of the draw, another Chinese pair, Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning, will face South Korea’s Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee. If they advance to the semifinals, they will meet Japan’s Chiharu Shida and Nami Matsuyama or Denmark’s Sara Thygesen and Maiken Fruergaard.
Meanwhile, in the women’s singles event, Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei put up a strong fight against South Korea’s world No. 17, Kim Ga-eun, in the final Group H match. Goh fought hard, pushing the match to three games, but ultimately lost 17-21, 22-20, 21-23, thus missing out on advancing to the round of 16.
