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The top men’s doubles pair of Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik overcame their English rivals, Sean Vendy-Ben Lane, in a three-game thriller to head their group. Chia and Soh won 19-21, 21-16, 21-11.
In the mixed doubles event, Cheng Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei got off to a fine start when they beat Singapore’s Terry Hee-Jessica Tan 23-21, 21-12.
However, top women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M Thinaah fell to the Chinese duo of Jia Yi Fan- Chen Qingchen 17-21, 20-22 in a hard-fought match.
The top two pairs in each group will advance to the quarter-finals.
Men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia will see action tomorrow.
Surprised by full crowd on first day
Tan Jie and Ee Wei, who are making their Olympic debut, said they were surprised to see a fully-packed arena with about 8,000 spectators on the first day, Bernama reported.
The arena was used for other tournaments such as the French Open earlier this year and would usually be less crowded.
“I was shocked to see a full attendance but it brought excitement and a positive spirit to fight. At the start, my body was still stiff, but we managed to overcome the early jitters.
“We were just concentrating on how to secure the points and not worried about what was happening. Our focus was to concentrate point by point. However, we later rushed into finishing off the match and that gave our opponents space to close down the gap.
“Lastly, we both trusted each other and worked on our strategies to win. We are excited and happy to have a good start, but it is still early in the group stage and we must be prepared,” he said.
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