Korean women's badminton doubles team loses in semis

The last South Korean badminton doubles team in play at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics lost its knockout match on Tuesday.

Jung Kyung-eun and Shin Seung-chan were eliminated in the semifinals of the women's doubles, as the No. 1-ranked Misaki Matsumoto and Ayaka Takahashi of Japan beat them 2-0 (21-16, 21-15).

The No. 5-ranked tandem from South Korea was the last remaining doubles pair for the country in Rio. On Monday, two men's doubles teams, including the top-ranked duo of Lee Yong-dae and Yoo Yeon-seong, and one women's doubles team lost their quarterfinals matches. The mixed doubles team of Ko Sung-hyun and Kim Ha-na suffered a quarterfinals loss on Sunday.

Jung and Shin have been relegated to Thursday's bronze medal match. The loser of the other semifinals match on Tuesday, between Tang Yuanting and Yu Yang of China and Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl of Denmark, will meet the South Koreans to play for third place.

Jung and Shin jumped to a 4-1 lead over Matsumoto and Takahashi in the opening game. The Japanese quickly turned the tables to take a 7-6 lead. Soon, they opened up a 13-7 deficit and the South Koreans never recovered.

The South Koreans scored the first point of the second game but never led again the rest of the time. The relentless Japanese kept piling up points and the lead ballooned to 18-12 in the late stage.

They held the match point at 20-15 and ended the match on the next rally.

South Korea still has medal aspirations in the singles. Son Wan-ho has made it to the quarters in the men's singles, while Sung Ji-hyun has done so in the women's singles. (Yonhap)