KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia enjoyed a smashing day at the Paris Olympics with a good run in badminton.
After a rousing win by Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, there were more good results from the other shuttlers.
Men's pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and mixed doubles Cheng Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei both booked early tickets to the last eight with one group match each to spare.
Lee Zii Jia also played his part by defeating Sri Lanka's Viren Nettasinghe 21-14, 21-12 in their Group G opener in the men's singles.
The most significant win came from Pearly-Thinaah who upstaged Japan's two-time former world champions Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara 18-21, 21-15, 21-16 to rekindle their quarter-final chances. Yesterday, the Malaysian duo had gone down in a closely contested match to China's World No. 1 Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan.
Aaron-Wooi Yik predictably reached the last eight after winning two out of two Group A matches. The former world champions, who needed three games to overcome Britain's Ben Lane-Sean Vendy yesterday, outclassed Canada's Adam Dong-Nyl Yakura 21-10, 21-15 today.
Olympic newcomers Tang Jie-Ee Wei, who subdued Singapore's Terry Hee-Jessica Tan yesterday, followed up with a 21-15, 24-22 victory over world No.30 Vinson Chiu-Jennie Gai of the United States today.
Tang Jie said he and Ee Wei were pleased to prevail against the Americans as Vinson-Jennie are no pushovers.
"Even though the US is not really known for badminton, we know they (Vinson-Jennie) have been really good in the past few months.
"So we made sure to prepare for a hard match. We had never played them before, so we watched videos of them and made sure our preparations were intense to prepare for a difficult match.
"They have good strategy and heart, they really wanted to win, and pressured us," Tang Jie told the BWF.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei will next face China's world No. 2 Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping to determine the Group D winners.