Arif-Roy King win all-Malaysian battle to make Macau Open final
The world No. 24's kept alive their bid for a maiden World Tour crown, which would be their first together and Malaysia's first men's doubles title at the event in 12 years.
The last time a Malaysian pair contested the title match in Macau was in 2013, when Hoon Thien How-Tan Wee Kiong lifted the crown. Since then, only two other pairs — Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani in 2019 and Nur Azriyn Ayub-Wee Kiong in 2024 — had made it as far as the semi-finals.
Arif-Roy King, who are currently the third-ranked pair in the national team behind world No. 2 Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and world No. 7 Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun, will now have a golden chance to close the gap with their senior teammates.
The opportunity is also there for them to claim the bragging rights as World Tour winners — albeit at Super 300 level — as their more established compatriots have already bagged two titles each this season.
Aaron-Wooi Yik lifted the Singapore Open (Super 750) and Thailand Open (Super 500), while Wei Chong-Kai Wun triumphed at the Indonesia Masters and Malaysia Masters, both Super 500 events.
Arif-Roy King had previously reached the final of a World Tour event once — the Spain Masters in March last year — but had to settle for runners-up.
Their best run this year was making the semi-finals of the Orleans Masters in France, while they also reached the quarter-finals of the Indonesia Masters, German Open and Thailand Open.
Although the two pairs train together daily under the national setup, this was the first time Arif-Roy King and Hon Jian-Haikal had faced each other competitively on the World Tour.
For world No. 52 Hon Jian-Haikal, the semi-final run was a much-needed breakthrough after returning from an injury-disrupted spell in May.
In their six outings prior to Macau, they suffered first-round exits on five occasions. This time, they made their presence felt — most notably by stunning former world No. 1 and Asian Games gold medallists Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy of India in the quarter-finals.
Awaiting Arif-Roy King in Sunday's final will be either last year's runners-up Sabar Karyaman Gutama-Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani of Indonesia or Taiwanese brothers Lee Fang Chih-Lee Fang Jen.
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