MARCUS Ellis knows exactly what it takes to succeed at the Olympics so there was no hiding the disappointment at a quarter-final exit in the mixed doubles.

Ellis and partner Lauren Smith had high hopes of adding to the 31-year-old’s bronze medal in Rio, won in the men’s doubles with Chris Langridge.

But the pair suffered a disappointing loss to Hong Kong duo Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet, 21-13 21-18, ending their hopes of a medal.

And Ellis found it hard to move past that disappointment in the immediate aftermath.

He said: “When we look back, I think we’ll be able to say that we had some very good performances.

“But I didn’t come here to lose in the quarter-finals. I’m not happy with losing at this stage.”

For Smith, in her first Games, there was certainly an element of frustration over losing to a pair who they beat the last time they met.

And she echoed Ellis’ disappointment at missing out on a medal.

She said: “It was definitely an opportunity. We know we can beat them, we did last time but we also know they’re a very good pair.

“I’m less gutted about the result and more about our performance. I don’t think we ever got the consistency, we didn’t quite nail the tactics that we like to and maybe we were off the speed of the game as well.

“To not quite do it on the day is very disappointing. It’s been a good event for us, a good tournament, I just think they were better than us today.

“We came here to win a medal, we wanted to do that for ourselves and Team GB, for our families and everyone at home.

“We haven’t been able to do that, it is hugely disappointing and does hurt a lot. That’s sport, there’s got to be a winner and a loser, unfortunately.

“We’re not walking away from this satisfied. But we are walking away knowing that we tried our best and gave it our all.” 

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