Favorites Zheng/Huang sail into badminton mixed doubles quarterfinals at Tokyo 2020

TOKYO -- World No 1 Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong defeated Seo Seung-jae/Chae Yu-jung of South Korea 2-0 in badminton mixed doubles here on Monday at the Tokyo Olympics, sailing smoothly into the quarterfinals.

The Top-seeded Chinese pair Zheng/Huang dominated the first game 21-14. In the second set, after the score seesawed to reach 13-13, the Chinese pair took the lead to win at 21-17.

Zheng and Huang pulled through a challenging game Sunday winning over the Netherlands' Robin Tabeling and Selena Piek 2-0. Zheng said that they reviewed the video recording after the game, summarized the mistakes and today focused on improving the problems they had in yesterday's match.

"We made some adjustments accordingly and I suppose in general we played better today," Zheng noted.

World No. 6 Seo/Chae, in their earlier two contests in group A, trounced Egypt's Adham Hatem Elgamal/Hany Doha 21-7, 21-3 and beat the Dutch duo Robin Tabeling/Selena Piek 2-1. Despite a loss to the Chinese top-seeded duo, the South Korean pair, with two victories at hand, also successfully advanced to the quarterfinals.

Seo said after the match that their Chinese opponents played better on the court today. "Although we tried out best to bring a better play as much as we could, it was a regret that we lost it. But the past is past, we will get ourselves ready for the quarterfinals."

Asked if they made targeted preparations for fighting the event's top seed, Chae noted that they sought to strengthen their defense as they know the Chinese pair is strong in attack. "They (Zheng/Huang) just did play like world No 1," she said.

"We have no idea whom to encounter in the next game in the quarterfinals, but we will make full preparations and seek to score more points in the first place," Seo added.