Ariana Nur Dania Mohamad Zairi, Syaqiera Mashayikh and Nurul Azreena Mohd Fazil scored only three points with one victory and a draw out of four sets: they lost the first set 52-54, won 55-47 in the next set, then lost by 51-53 and drew 52-52.

They will compete in the individual round of 64 starting on Tuesday.

Despite their loss in the team event, Ariana said she was satisfied with her performance as she did better than in the ranking round last Thursday.

Ariana, who celebrated her 19th birthday yesterday with her family and officials from the Malaysian contingent, admitted that she received an extra boost to overcome her nerves in her first Olympics.

“My whole family (parents, older sister, younger brother and younger sister) came here to support me. I managed to celebrate my birthday with a cake and had a meal with my family here. I hope this can boost my confidence for the individual event later,” she said.

Malaysia’s South Korean head coach, Lee Jae Hyung, said that the team need to rectify some weaknesses.

“Today, there was no wind disturbance; we could shoot, but the finishing was less than excellent. On the Olympic stage, all opponents are well-prepared. We need to be brave to do better, and we will continue to fine-tune for the individual event,” he said.

In the ranking round to determine the draw for the knockout stages of the individual and team events, Syaqiera, who competed in the Tokyo 2020 edition, finished 14th with 663 points, while Ariana (633 points) and Nurul Azreena (622 points) finished in 50th and 60th positions, respectively.

Syaqiera will compete against Alexandra Mirca from Moldova on Tuesday, while Ariana and Nurul Azreena will face tough challenges from 15th-ranked Chiara Rebagliati from Italy and fifth-ranked Elif Berra Gokkır from Turkey, respectively the following day.