KUALA LUMPUR: Women's pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah put up a good fight, but it was not enough to overcome China's world No. 1 Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan, the reigning Olympics silver medallists, at the Paris Olympics on Saturday.
Pearly-Thinaah went down 21-17, 22-20 for an opening defeat in Group A.
The world No. 13 Malaysians must now win their remaining two matches to advance to the knockout round.
Pearly-Thinaah will seek to bounce back when they take on Japan's world No. 6 Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara tomorrow (July 28).