Malaysian pair Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan, along with three other pairs, will be seeking major feats in their badminton careers as they seek glory in their debut appearance in the Olympic Games in Paris.
Tan/Thinaah, Chinese pair Liu Sheng Shu/Tan Ning, Japan’s Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida and Korean pair Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee (formerly with Shin Seung-chan), all made significant impacts in their Paris 2024 campaign after qualifying into the last eight in their Olympic debut in Paris.
Asia will be seeking to maintain their dominance in the women’s doubles with two other pairs, who have appeared in Tokyo 2020 – top-seed Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan and Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong – seeking to overcome their two European rivals in the quarterfinals action – Bulgarian sisters Gabriela/Stefanie Stoeva and surprise quarterfinalist Maiken Fruergaard/Sara Thygesen of Denmark.
Pearly/Thinaah put up a gutsy display to eliminate Indonesian pair Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadhia Ramadhanti 21-18, 21-9 to take the runner-up spot in yesterday’s group A tie.
“We were a bit nervous because it was a must-win for us…we’ve been quite stressed since Monday because we were thinking about today’s game,” Tan was quoted as saying.
The Malaysian world No.13 will square off against Tokyo bronze medallist and Group C champion, Kim So-yeong/Kong Hee-yong of Korea in the quarterfinals.
China’s top seed Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan, the hot favourites, are up against three-time Olympians, sisters Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria.
The bottom half of the draw has Korea’s second-seeded pair Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee taking on China’s Liu Sheng Shu/Tan Ning.
Surprise quarterfinalist Maiken Fruergaard/Sara Thygesen will aim to take the European challenge beyond the quarterfinals stage as they prepare a tough tie against fourth seed Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida of Japan.
Elsewhere, the fourth day of action of the men’s doubles saw South Korea’s fourth seed Kang Min-hyuk/ Seo Seung-jae, brushing aside Thailand Thailand’s Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kendren 21-16 21-15.
The other highlights include Indian pair Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy’s 21-13 21-13 win against seventh-ranked Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto which was settled in 40 minutes.
“We needed this win to boost our confidence,” said Chirag.
The women’s doubles competition saw an upset with world No.4 number Matsuyama Nami/Chiharu Shida of Japan suffering a 22-24, 24-26 loss at the hands of South Korea’s world No.10, Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong.
Reigning champions Wang Chi-Lin/Lee Yang meanwhile, had no trouble defeating Vinson Chiu and Joshua Yuan of the United States 21-12 21-13 in Group D.
In the women’s singles, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon overcame Belgium’s Lianne Tan but the real action will be on Wednesday evening when she plays old rival Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese-Taipei for a place in the round of 16.
Leading contenders who will be in action on the fifth day of competition include Shi Yuqi, Viktor Axelsen, Jonatan Christie, An Se-young and reigning Olympic champion Chen Yufei.
The mixed doubles quarterfinal action involving pairs from Hong Kong, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Japan and Korea gets underway on Thursday evening, beginning at 8.30 pm local time, at Porter de la Chapelle.
Quarterfinal Match-ups:
MIXED DOUBLES:
Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet (Hong Kong China) vs Seo Seung Jae/Chae Yu Jung (KOR)
[2] Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino vs Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Terrattanachai (THA)
[1] Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong vs [2] Feng Yan Zhe/Huang Dong Ping (CHN)
Kim Won Ho/Jeong Na Eun (KOR) vs Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei (MAS)
WOMEN’S DOUBLES:
[1] Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan (CHN) vs Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva (BUL)
Kim So Yeong/Kong Hee Yong (KOR) vs Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan (MAS)
[2] Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee (KOR) vs Liu Shen Shu/Tan Ning (CHN)
[4] Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida (JPN) vs Maiken Fruergaard/Sara Thygesen (DEN)
(numbers in brackets denote seedings)
For full results, follow:
