Mixed fortunes for Singapore’s badminton players as they begin Paris Olympics campaign

PARIS: It was a tale of two matches for Singapore’s badminton players on Saturday (Jul 27) as world number 20 Yeo Jia Min cruised to victory, while the mixed doubles duo of Terry Hee and Jessica Tan fell to a defeat.

At the Porte de La Chapelle Arena, 13th seed Yeo Jia Min dispatched Refugee Olympic team’s Dorsa Yavarivafa 21-7, 21-8 in 22 minutes.

However, the husband-wife pair of Terry Hee and Jessica Tan lost to Malaysia’s Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, ranked ninth in the world, 21-23, 12-21.

This was the second time the Singaporean pair had matched up against the Malaysian duo - they fell to a three-game defeat in March.

Yeo’s victory means that a win against Kate Foo Kune of Mauritius in her next match will see her progress to the round of 16. 

This is Yeo's second Olympics appearance - she was eliminated in the group stages in Tokyo three years ago.

With the top two pairs from the four mixed doubles groups moving on to the next round, Olympic debutants Hee and Tan will now need to beat the Chinese world number 2 pair of Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping on Sunday to stand any chance of progressing.

Singapore’s former world champion Loh Kean Yew will begin his Games campaign on Sunday against Czech Republic’s Jan Louda.

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