KUALA LUMPUR: Are Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik destined to end the season without a World Tour title?
The world No 4 suffered their first defeat as world champions after being knocked out by Indonesia's Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo-Marcus Fernaldi Gideon in the semi-finals of the Denmark Open today.
Aaron-Wooi Yik went down fighting 21-17, 13-21, 21-17 to the world No 3, their ninth defeat in 11 meetings.
They have now exited the last-four stage for the sixth time on the World Tour this year after the Swiss Open, Thailand Open, Indonesia Open, Malaysia Open and Malaysia Masters.
"Maybe it's just not our day," lamented Aaron in a post-match interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
However, Aaron said they are not going to dwell on the defeat as they switch their focus to the French Open next week.
The Paris tourney will be their penultimate World Tour action before the World Tour Finals in Guangzhou in December.
"The momentum (from the World Championships triumph) is still with us, we will get ourselves prepared for next week and make amends," he said
Wooi Yik insists that he and Aaron are relishing the challenge of being the men to beat in future tournaments.
"We can handle the pressure quite well, but I think we still have much to learn about being a top-ranked pair," he said.
"This is a process we have to undergo to go further."
Another Indonesian pair, Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto defeated world No 9 Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi 21-16, 22-20.
It marked Yew Sin-Ee Yi's fourth defeat in as many meetings against the in-form world No 6, who made it to their eighth final of the season.