Malaysian men’s doubles pair Aaron Tai and Yap Roy King won the Kumamoto Masters Japan badminton title on Sunday (Nov 15), their second World Tour crown since they teamed up last month.
The world No 57 pair came from a game down to beat Japan’s world No 10 Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi, former world champions playing in front of their home crowd, 16-21, 21-13, 21-15 in a 54-minute final in Kumamoto.
The win is worth US$39,500 (RM161,400) in prize money and is Malaysia’s first men’s doubles title at the tournament since it was first held in 2023. The only other Malaysians to have won there are women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan and M Thinaah, last year’s champions.
Aaron and Roy King won the Arctic Open in Finland last month, the first tournament they played together. They have reached the semi-finals in three of their five tournaments so far and went out in the last 16 in the other two.
They are the most successful of the new doubles combinations the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) is trying out ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The pair’s next tournament is the Hong Kong Open, which begins on Tuesday (Nov 17).