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The Malaysians qualified for the semi-finals after beating the Indian pair 13-21, 21-14, 21-16 in 58 minutes at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena.
The former world champions had to dig deep into their reserves to overcome the world No 5 Indian pair who had beaten them at their last three meetings in straight games. The Malaysians won seven times consecutively before that.
In the first game, it was the word “go” from the start for Rankireddy-Shetty as they piled up point after point, leaving the Malaysians in a daze. They took a quick lead of 11-6 during the breather before going on to wrap the game 21-15 in 16 minutes.
Aaron-Wooi Yik came back confidently in the second game showing much determination and forcing the Indian pair into making errors by returning difficult shots with accurate placements. They won easily 21-14 in 19 minutes to force a rubber.
The Malaysians showed early promise by taking a quick 3-1 lead but the Indians levelled the score at 3-3 in short time in the third game. It was nail-biting all the way for both pairs before Aaron-Wooi Yik won 21-16 in 23 minutes to wrap up the match in 58 minutes.
Aaron and Wooi Yik finished as runners-up in Group A, losing to Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang 22-24, 14-21. However, they defeated Britain’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 19-21, 21-16, 21-11 on Saturday, and Canada’s Adam Dong and Nyl Yakura 21-10, 21-15 the following day.
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