Olympic bronze medallists Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik's hopes of securing a spot in the World Tour Finals suffered a huge blow after a second round defeat at the Indonesian Open in Bali yesterday.
And of all people, it was their compatriots, Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi who dealt them a sucker punch with a 21-14, 21-17 win.
World No 6 Aaron-Wooi Yik, who were semi-finalists at the Indonesian Masters last week, needed a huge result this week to boost their chance of qualifying for the season-ending event.
But the fifth seeds were unable to get going as world No 12 Yew Sin-Ee Yi seized the initiative for the win. Ironically, independent pair Yew Sin-Ee Yi ended up booking their spot for next week's World Tour Finals.
Yew Sin-Ee Yi are currently fourth in the World Tour Finals standings, and reaching the Indonesia Open quarter-finals, which is a Super 1000 event, has done them a world of good.
By contrast, Aaron-Wooi Yik are currently ranked only ninth, with only the top eight pairs making the cut.
Yew Sin-Ee Yi will go on to meet top seeds and home favourites Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in the last eight.
The Indonesian world No 1 pair scraped through after surviving a see-saw 12-21, 21-19, 21-18 battle with South Korea's Choi Solgyu-Kim Won Ho.
Meanwhile, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah blew a one game lead to crash out 21-14, 20-22, 17-21 in the women's doubles second round against Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma-Amalia Cahaya Pratiwi. The Indonesia pair will meet Japan's fourth seeds Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida in the last eight.
Meanwhile Lee Meng Yean-Yap Cheng Wen were beaten 14-21, 15-21 by Bulgaria's Gabriela Stoeva-Stefani Stoeva in the second round while Vivian Hoo-Lim Chiew Sien lost 26-24, 12-21, 11-21 to Thailand's Jongkolphan Kittitharakul-Rawinda Prajongjai.
