Chris Langridge claims he and Marcus Ellis are the bogey team of South Korea’s third seed pairing Kim Gi-jung and Kin Sa-rang after they won a pulsating Rio 2016 Olympics men’s doubles clash.
The Team GB pair lost their opening match to London 2012 runners-up Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark and entered this clash knowing they had to win to stay in the competition.
And their daring three-game win sets up an intriguing match with Poland’s Adam Cwalina and Przemyslaw Wacha on Saturday with a place in the quarter-finals on the line. Langridge admits they were disheartened after their first match but felt confident of victory because of their strong record against the South Korean pair.
“Yesterday we were deflated; we knew that we played well we just didn’t quite have it at the end. We started really well then we went really flat but we are obviously absolutely buzzing to win,” he said.
“We have never lost to them, that is the third time we have played them and the third time we have beaten them which doesn’t really make sense because there are No.3 in the world and on their day possibly the best pair in the world. I don’t know why but we are probably their bogey men.
“The second set didn’t feel too bad and then then third set everything went everywhere I was very tense and I was looking at Marcus and he looked pretty cool and I was like ‘what’.
“I think that helped me because I had got to the stage, it sounds silly, where I wanted to win too much. I had gotten a little bit overboard.
“I don’t even remember the last really, I think I just stood there and Marcus did everything. We are so pleased because now it puts us back in contention to try and make the quarter-finals and the first step to doing something special.”
The British pair fell behind in the first game and struggled to get back on track as the South Korean’s had momentum and confidently saw it out 21-17.
But a thrilling see-saw second game saw Ellis and Langridge dig deep and force a decider with a 25-23 scoreline.
And they took control immediately and went on to win the third game 21-18 in a massive result.
Ellis said: “We knew going into the third that we were going to end on the better side of the court. That was always the plan to end on the better side because it gives us an advantage to the very end.”
