It may not have been the result they wanted but Marcus Ellis believes he and Chris Langridge can take heart from their battling defeat to Olympic silver medallists Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen.
Ellis and Langridge made their long-awaited Olympic Games bow in Rio on Thursday, marking the occasion by running London 2012 runners-up Boe and Mogensen of Denmark close.
The British duo had initially lost the opening game 21-9 in 19 minutes but they regrouped and levelled the match after taking the second by the same scoreline. However lady luck was not on their side and a couple of decisive net cords in the final game handed the Danes a 21-9 9-21 21-16 win.
“I’m really happy we’ve managed to get our first game out of the way, it’s a first Olympic Games for both of us,” said Ellis afterwards.
“I’m really happy to put in a good performance and I’m proud of how well we played. I just know how close we were to beating a world class pair.
“I’m looking forward to our next games. In our eyes, we’ve probably got the best pair out of the way, certainly the hardest pair we have to play.”
Next up for Langridge and Ellis at Riocentro Pavillion 4 is a clash with South Korea’s Gi Jung Kim and Sa Rang Kim today while the Polish pair of Adam Cwalina and Przemyslaw Wacha lie in wait on Saturday.
“It’s going to be tough but we have played well today so we’ve got to carry that on,” said Langridge.
“We are so close in that game. We’ve got to make sure we put in as good as performance as that in our remaining games.
“They were one of the best players in the world, they are current Olympic silver medallists. “There were one or two nets cords, we played one or two loose shots and it got away from us.”
