Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik Lose the World Championship Final in Thirty-Five Minutes and Slip to Third in the World
Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang won 21-17, 21-16 in New Delhi to give China a men's doubles world title for the first time in eight years. Malaysia's wait for a second goes past fourteen months.
Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik lost the men's doubles final at the BWF World Championships 21-17, 21-16 in thirty-five minutes on Sunday 23 August at the Indira Gandhi Arena in New Delhi. Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang become the first Chinese men's doubles pair to take the world title in eight years.
How the final went
The Malaysians, seeded fourth, trailed 1-5 early, levelled at 5-5, and closed to 16-18 in the second game before it got away from them. It was their third runner-up finish of 2026 and extends a title drought now standing at fourteen months, since the 2025 Singapore Open. They had beaten the world number one Korean pair in the semi-final to get there.
The rest of the podium
| Event | Champion |
|---|---|
| Men's singles | Alex Lanier (France) |
| Women's singles | An Se-young (Korea) |
| Men's doubles | Liang Wei Keng / Wang Chang (China) |
| Women's doubles | Baek Ha-na / Lee So-hee (Korea) |
| Mixed doubles | Thom Gicquel / Delphine Delrue (France) |
Two French world titles in a single championship is a first. Indonesia took bronze in mixed doubles and Thailand in women's singles.
Where Malaysia stands in the rankings
As at 25 August, Chia and Soh have dropped to third in the men's doubles world rankings on 89,484 points, overtaken by Indonesia's Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri on 90,853, with Korea's Kim Won Ho and Seo Seung Jae clear at the top on 122,049. Malaysia hold six places inside the top twenty-five, which remains the deepest men's doubles pool in the world.
In men's singles the region's leaders are Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand at three and Loh Kean Yew of Singapore at thirteen. There is no Malaysian inside the top fifteen.
What is next
There is no World Tour event this week. The tour resumes on 1 September with the China Masters Super 750 in Shenzhen and an Indonesia Masters, followed by the Vietnam Open in Ho Chi Minh City from 8 September.
Following it on Playdash
Playdash prices badminton with match winner, game handicap, correct game score, total points and first-to-eleven markets on every tie, plus tournament outrights across BWF World Tour events and the World Championships. Asian-hosted tournaments run through the local afternoon and evening with in-play pricing rally by rally.
Results, rankings and calendar as published by the BWF and Malaysian press reports. Individual bronze medallists are not named here as sources could not be confirmed at the time of writing on 27 August 2026.