Meet Top Seeds In Olympic Quarter-finals, Praveen/Melati: Fight Whoever We Have To Be Ready

JAKARTA - The pair Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti met a tough opponent in the quarter-finals on Wednesday, 27 July. They will take on the world number one mixed doubles Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong of China.

Praveen/Melati bagged two wins and one loss to become runners-up in Group B, while Zheng/Huang won Group A with a total of three wins.

"Any opponent we must be ready. Moreover, this is already the quarter-finals, all opponents are tough, so we must be ready from the start," said Melati in an official statement from PBSI quoted by Antara, Tuesday.

Jordan/Melati and Zheng/Huang are in the top pool with Marcus Ellis/Lauren Smith (England) who will face Tang Chun Man/Tze Ying Suet (Hong Kong).

While in the bottom pool, second seed Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping (China) met Seo Seung Jae/Choi Sol Gyu (South Korea). The others are Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino (Japan) against Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai (Thailand).

Melati added that mental factors greatly affect her performance.

"What is certain is that you have to be mentally prepared, because it affects everything, especially our game. The day after tomorrow, I hope to be able to play more comfortably and give the best game we have," said Melati.

Responding to her defeat to the host's representative, namely Yuta Watanabe / Arisa Higashino, Melati admitted that she did not play well even though she had made maximum preparations.

"The problem was that we couldn't get out of the pressure. Several times we had opportunities but finally we came back under pressure. That shouldn't happen again," said Melati.