Lee Yong Dae, the rising star from South Korea in men's doubles pairing with Jung Jae Sung, suffered early exit at the Beijing Olympics, losing to Danish veterans Lars Passke/Jonas Rasmussen 16-21, 19-21 Tuesday.
Regarded as the favorites at Beijing Olympic tournament, the No. 3 seeds apparently suffered from their inexperience and nervousness on their debut at Olympic Games, making too many errors at their trademark drops on the net.
"They looked shaky on the court," said Rasmussen. "It is their first Olympic Games, while it is our second. We felt calm on the court this time."
At the last Olympics in Athens, 2003 world champions Passke and Rasmussen, considered the favorites at the Games, stumbled at the threshold to the quarter-final.
"We know how to play against them. We tried to get a lot of speed into the game but vary the speed also, so they wouldn't know how fast the shuttle was coming," Rasmussen said, adding that Lee Yong Dae boasts great potential in the future.
"Experience helped us to win this match," he said.
On the contrary to the talkative Danish pairs, Lee, who is going to play a mixed doubles match with Lee Hyo Jung tonight, declined to answer any questions from the mixed zone.
(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2008)