Jayce
Olympic champions Li Yang and Wang Chi-Lin delivered an impressive performance in their second Group stage test of the men’s doubles “group of death,” defeating world number two Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen after a grueling match.
In addition to the defending champions from Chinese Taipei and the World Championships runners-up from Denmark, Group L also features 2021 World Championships winners Takeshi Kamura/Yugo Kobayashi, world number nine Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi, and the American duo of Qiu Wenxian/Yuan Zhiwei.
Li and Wang celebrated their second group stage victory with a solid win over the Danish pair, coming off their previous victory against Kamura/Kobayashi, with a score of 21-15, 19-21, 21-15.
“The match was very tough because their defense was very good,” Wang said. “We had to keep attacking and put pressure on them to force mistakes. The match was full of psychological battles because they served very well, and I had to stop them. Kim’s serves were very spinny, and I had to figure out how to block him, which almost got me a yellow card!”
In another match in the group, Liu/Ou easily defeated Qiu/Yuan. The next match for Astrup/Rasmussen will be against Liu/Ou, setting up a climactic finish for the group.
Hong Kong Wins First Ever Olympic Women’s Doubles Match
Yang Pei-Lin and Yang Ya-Ting fought hard to defeat the American duo Xu Jianjun and Xu Kai-Rui, securing Hong Kong’s first-ever victory in the Olympic women’s doubles event.
The world number 18 pair saved a game point in the first set and held off a strong comeback from the Xu twins, eventually winning 24-22, 17-21, 21-12 in 70 minutes.
“Congratulations to us!” Pui Lam was thrilled to break the curse.
“Our two matches have both lasted over an hour. We really trust each other,” her partner Ya-Ting said. “In the first set, we lost many points in a row, but we just needed to keep our trust in each other and believe that we could do it. We have to have confidence in our training.”
“We arrived here three days before the match and trained with the Danish pair (Madsen/Fruergaard). When we saw them defeat the Korean pair (2nd seeds Bai He-Na/Li Shao-Xi), we felt we could also achieve good results.”
“Annie and Kerry have made great progress, and so have we. We are all very nervous. We will give our all in the next match.”
