The surprise French pair Julien Maio and William Villeger, currently ranked No. 89 in the world, have just defeated world No. 2 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia.

The victory was secured 21-15, 24-22, and it was clear to see just how much the win meant to the two French players.

After the match, we spoke to a very happy French duo.

Villeger said:

“It is crazy. We are really happy about this performance today.”

The second game was extremely tight and swung back and forth. Nevertheless, the French pair appeared calm in the decisive moments. Maio explained:

“I think it was a little bit tough to stay calm at the end because we knew that they could come back quite fast. So we just said to each other to keep the tactics, and then they needed to try to find something. We managed to push them a lot and put them under pressure, and it worked today.”

A truly impressive performance from the two Frenchmen, who have not yet looked ahead in the draw and therefore do not even know who they will face in tomorrow’s quarterfinal.

Their opponents are still to be decided, but they will meet either Lee/Lee from Chinese Taipei or Arif/Yap from Malaysia.