JAKARTA - Indonesian mixed doubles Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti admitted that they did not play well when they faced representatives of the hosts Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino in the final qualifying match for Group C of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In that match, Praveen/Melati had to admit the superiority of Watanabe/Higashino and gave up with a score of 13-21, 10-21 at Musashino Forest Sport Plaza, Tokyo, Japan, Monday.
"Today our game was not so good. We were under a lot of pressure from the start. But we will try to do better tomorrow", Jordan said.
Despite playing badly, Melati added that together with Praveen, they had made various preparations before the match.
"It (the defeat) was not because we weren't ready, but because we couldn't get out of the opponent's pressure situation", said Melati.
In terms of ranking, Praveen/Jasmine and Watanabe/Higashino are not far apart. Praveen/Melati are in fourth place in the world, while the Japanese pair is fifth in the world.
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“Today's match conditions are different from the previous ones. The opponents are getting tougher, and we have to be able to perform even better tomorrow in the quarter-finals", concluded Melati.
Meanwhile, Yuta Watanabe admitted that he did not find it difficult to apply his playing pattern against Praveen/Melati, because the two pairs had already met in several other tournaments.
"We had no trouble finding our pattern of play. We've played against Indonesian players a few times, so we're used to their game", said Watanabe.
Furthermore, he also revealed his strategy when facing Indonesian representatives so that he could steal a lot of points in the match.
"We try to avoid the male players because he is also strong, so we try to hit the shuttlecock very short to avoid big shots from them", concluded Watanabe.
The final group C match at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was the fifth meeting between the two pairs. From their previous four meetings, the position was even 2-2. Both Praveen/Melati and Watanabe/Higashino have already bagged two wins.
The two women's doubles first met at the 2018 Malaysia Masters tournament. Then they met again at the 2019 Australian Open, Fuzhou China Open 2019, and finally the 2019 BWF World Tour Finals.
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