Campaign over: Mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei in action during the Olympic Games - Pix by OCM
PETALING JAYA: Mixed doubles shuttlers Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei's hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics were dashed after they went down to South Korea's world No. 8 Kim Won-ho-Jeong Na-eun in the last eight.
The world No. 9 pair suffered a 19-21, 14-21 defeat at the hands of the Koreans in 41 minutes at Adidas Arena in Port de la Chapelle on Wednesday (July 31).
Tang Jie and Ee Wei were 10-12 down in the first game when the latter fell while attempting to return the shuttle and appeared to have hurt her back.
The 24-year-old Ee Wei called for treatment and continued playing after getting her back sprayed.
Won-ho-Na-eun took four points after that before Tang Jie-Ee Wei attempted to fight back.
The Malaysians then saved five match points from 14-20 down to make it 19-20 before an error from Tang Jie allowed the Koreans to snatch the win.
In the second game, Tang Jie-Ee Wei seemed to lose focus and made many errors to leave them facing a mountain to climb at 1-11 down.
Despite trying to save the situation, they could not close the huge gap.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei were disappointed to see their debut Olympic campaign come to an end.
"We prepared well but we are still not mature enough to handle some situations on court," said Tang Jie in a post match interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
"Everyone has pressure and we just had to handle it only but unfortunately, today we did not make it."
A disappointed Ee Wei admitted she was in pain but did not want to talk about it.
"Yes, there was pain...but overall, it was a good experience to play in our first Olympics but we didn't do well in the quarter-finals."
Meanwhile, Won-ho-Na-eun will face teammates Seo Seung-jae-Chae Yu-jung in the last four after the latter defeated Hong Kong's Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet 21-15, 21-10 in the quarter-finals.The other last four match will see China's world No. 1 Zheng Siwei-Huang Yaqiong taking on Japan's world No. 5 Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino.
OTHER FIXTURES (THURSDAY, AUG 1)
QUARTER-FINALS
Women's doubles
2.30pm: Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah vs Kim So-yeong-Kong Hee-yong (Kor)
Men's doubles
7pm: Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik vs Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty (Ind)
LAST 16
Men's singles
8.10pm: Lee Zii Jia vs Toma Popov (Fra)
