Olympic champions Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin aced their second test in the men’s doubles Group of Death, staving off world No.2 Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in a hard-fought battle.

Besides the reigning champions from Chinese Taipei and the World Championships runners-up from Denmark, the group also has 2021 world champions Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi, world No.9 Liu Yu Chen/Ou Xuan Yi and USA’s Vinson Chiu/Joshua Yuan.

Lee/Wang have had a great start to their gold medal defence, beating Hoki/Kobayashi in their previous match before holding firm against the Danes in the 21-15 19-21 21-15 result.

“It was so tough, because their defence is so good,” said Wang. “We just had to keep going and going and going, give them pressure and force the mistakes. There were a lot of mind games, because they were serving well and I had to stop them. Kim was putting a lot of spin on his serves and I had to think how to stop him, so I almost got a yellow card!”

In another match of the group, Liu/Ou were comfortable winners over Chiu/Yuan. With Astrup/Rasmussen due to face Liu/Ou next, the group is headed for a climactic finish.

Hong Kong China Notch Debut Win

Yeung Pui Lam and Yeung Nga Ting recorded Hong Kong China’s first win in women’s doubles at the Olympics with a hard-fought win over USA’s Annie Xu and Kerry Xu.

The world No.18 pair saved game points in the opening game and then fought off a spirited fightback from the Xu twins to come through victorious in 70 minutes, 24-22 17-21 21-12.

“Congratulations to ourselves!” said Pui Lam, thrilled at breaking the jinx.

“Both our matches have gone for more than an hour. We really trusted each other,” said her partner Nga Ting. “In the first game we lost a lot of points in succession and we just had to keep our trust and we told each other that we could still do it. We had to keep our trust in our training.

“We’d trained with Denmark (Maiken Fruergaard/Sara Thygesen) when we arrived here three days before the competition, and when we saw that they beat the Koreans (No.2 seeds Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee), we thought we could also do well.

“Annie and Kerry have improved a lot, and so have we. We were both nervous. We will give our all in the next match.”

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