Alarm bells went off in Singaporean paddler Yu Mengyu's head even after winning the first three games of her women's singles second-round match against 63rd-ranked Portuguese Shao Jieni.
So detailed was her pre-match preparation that the world No. 47 player recalled that Shao had pulled off a 4-3 win over Swede Christina Kaellberg on Saturday when stuck in a similar position.
"That put me on alert, and I was not complacent throughout," said Yu, who received a first-round bye and proceeded to steamroll past Shao 4-0 (11-3, 11-2, 11-8, 11-9).
The 31-year-old, who reached the quarter-finals at Rio 2016, will face world No. 8 Cheng I-ching in the round of 32 tomorrow.
Singapore's top player, world No. 9 Feng Tianwei, kicks off her campaign against Spaniard Maria Xiao today.
Despite the gulf in ranking, Yu holds a 10-3 head-to-head record against the Chinese Taipei player, including wins in their last four encounters in which she dropped just two games.
She said: "Her ranking is a lot higher than mine, so I will be adopting a battle mentality and take things point by point.
"Now that I have one game under my belt here, I am more familiar with the surroundings and conditions. I hope to be able to play more freely, and be smoother in my combinations and movement. I will do my best as I don't want to have any regrets after."
It was a mixed day for the national paddlers at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium as debutant Clarence Chew's brave run was ended by Austria's world No. 44 Daniel Habesohn, who won 4-1 (11-7, 11-9, 11-8, 6-11, 12-10) to move into the men's singles third round.
The world No. 186 took the game to his rival but Habesohn had answers to most of what the Singaporean threw at him.
For the first three games, the scores were level at 6-6 before the 35-year-old European pulled away each time for a three-game lead.
But Chew refused to go down without a fight and took the fourth game. But he could not see through a 8-6 lead in the fifth frame, and saw his campaign end despite saving two match points.
Chew, 25, who had beaten higher-ranked Senegalese Ibrahima Diaw on Saturday, said: "Towards the end of the games, you can see he has more experience and was able to make adjustments and changes and forced me into making mistakes.
"At 0-3 down, I played more freely and it was a pity I couldn't capitalise in the fifth game. Overall, I put up a good fight and it was a good match."
Chew will now turn his sights to the SEA Games which have been postponed to next year due to the coronavirus pandemic. At the last edition in the Philippines in 2019, he lost in the singles final to teammate Koen Pang, whom he then beat in the Olympic qualifiers to earn his ticket to Tokyo.
He added: "In such a disrupted couple of years, I treasure every moment on court and I'm happy and honoured to be able to compete. This was a positive outing for me, I learnt a lot playing against top players and saw what I'm lacking in terms of serving and receiving, as well as footwork and power.
"I know I'm not that far off these top players, and these are things I can work on to continue improving for the future."
