Tokyo: The last day of women’s doubles group stage competitions was highlighted by several exciting matches.
Indonesia’s World No. 6 Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu were through the top of Group A after a strong display to down World No. 1 Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota of Japan 24-22, 13-21, 21-8.
After the match, Greysia Polii said that she and Rahayu have strong chemistry which was very important for doubles players.
“We are very close. We do everything together such as eating the same food,” said Polii.
“We have to remind each other to play in a harmonious rhythm, one mind, and one spirit,” added Polii.
“Maybe those things look small, but it has a huge impact in the match,” continued Polii.
Malaysia’s World No. 11 Chow Mei Kuan/Lee Meng Yean and World No. 28 Setyana Mapasa/Gronya Somerville of Australia also recorded their first victory in their Olympic debut.
Chow/Lee beat World No. 14 Lauren Smith/Chloe Birth of Great Britain 21–19, 21–16 while Mapasa/Somerville pulled off an upset to see off World No. 16 Maiken Fruergaard/Sara Thygesen of Denmark 21-19, 13-21, 21-12.
Meanwhile, China’s World No. 3 women’s pair – Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan was stretched to the limit before defeating World No. 5 Kim So-Yeong/Kong Hee-Yong of Korea on Tuesday. During the match, Chen was heard roaring and screaming with the Chinese curse words “我操”, you can check the meaning of this word through this Google translate link. Chen later issued an apology on her social media account citing she was trying to encourage herself and mispronounced certain words during the match.
Following is the Olympic women’s doubles quarter-final draw:
Top Half:
Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu (INA) vs. Du Yue/Li Yinhui (CHN)
Lee So-hee/Shin Seung-chan (KOR) vs. Selena Piek/Cheryl Seinen (NED)
Bottom Half:
Kim So-yeong/Kong Hee-yong (KOR) vs. Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara (JPN)
Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota (JPN) vs. Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan (CHN)
