Story is picking up steam on the newswires:
Fans jeer errors in doubles match
Constant errors, including players serving into the net, featured in the match which the Chinese top seeds lost.
Both pairs were already through to the quarter-finals with the winners to face China's Tian Quing and Zhao Yunlei.
The South Korean pair did not comment, but Yu said she and Wang were saving energy for the knockout stages.
The longest rally in the first game lasted four shots, with match referee Thorsten Berg coming on to court at one point to warn the players.
The two Chinese pairings can now only meet in the final.
Yu said: "These opponents really were strong. This is the first time we've played them and Wednesday it's the knockout rounds, so we've already qualified and we wanted to have more energy for the knockout rounds.
But South Korean head coach Sung Han-Kook said: "It's not like the Olympics spirit to play like this. How could the number one pair in the world play like this?"
A later match between South Korean third seeds Ha Jung-Eun and Kim Min-Jung and Indonesian pair Meiliana Juahari and Greysia Polii was played out in a similar atmosphere.
Referee Berg returned to court and brandished the black card, signalling disqualification, but it was rescinded and the match resumed when the Indonesians protested.
Both pairs had also already qualified for the knockout stages, with the winner of Group C to play Yu and Wang and the Korean pairs to face each other if Ha and Kim lost.
Badminton tournament marred by teams trying to purposefully lose a match
Badminton chiefs are likely to change their Olympic format after embarrassing scenes on Tuesday saw two women's doubles pairs appear to deliberately throw a match.
Angry fans at Wembley Arena booed and jeered once it became clear that No.1 seed Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang of China and Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na of South Korea were trying to purposefully lose their contest in the final round of the group stage in order to obtain an easier draw in the next round.
If the Olympics are supposed to be about the pursuit of excellence and honesty, this was anything but. Both sets of players, especially the Chinese, looked to be making no attempt whatsoever. Serves were skewed wide on purpose. Shots were allowed to drop to the floor with little effort to retrieve them.
The best team in the world performed worse than a pair of rank amateurs and cast shame on their sport in the process. Tennis legend John McEnroe, working as an analyst for the BBC, was utterly incredulous.
"They need to change this now," McEnroe said. "People who are watching the badminton right now will be turning off in droves and losing even more interest."
Badminton officials had already come under fire for adopting a group system for this event instead of single elimination as in previous Games. Given Tuesday's saga, it is unthinkable that group play will be retained.
The sorry situation came about because both pairs had already qualified for the quarterfinal after winning their first two group games, and because the second-ranked Chinese of pairing Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei had already been upset by a team from Denmark. That meant that the winner of the China vs. South Korea match would earn the dubious honor of facing Tian and Zhao, offering the genuine advantage of an easier draw for losing on purpose.
At one point in the first set there was the ludicrous sight of three straight fault serves being committed, unthinkable for teams of this caliber. A match referee took the step of striding furiously onto the court and issuing a formal warning to both teams.
From that point on an improved effort seemed to have been made, although the South Koreans went on to win 21-14, 21-11.
As the players slapped hands – just as half-heartedly as their efforts on the court – the jeers from an unsatisfied crowd rained down on them and continued as all four players walked off the court. The Chinese pair tried to explain that their lackluster performance was because they were trying to save energy. No one was buying it.
"The Chinese had already started this," said Korean coach Sung Han-kook. "They did it first. It is a complicated thing with the draws. They didn't want to meet each other in the semifinal. The [Badminton World Federation] should do something about it."
Later in the session, a second Korean team, Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung, also appeared to be trying to throw a game against Indonesian opposition but following a warning of expulsion from the referee began to concentrate properly and clinched a three-set victory.
Table tennis abandoned its group format after the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and now uses the single-elimination method. The same can be expected from badminton by the time the 2016 Games roll around in Rio.
A badminton magazine recently revealed that of the 99 matches that Chinese players or pairs were due to play against each other in international tournaments in 2011, 20 were walkovers.
While these higher ranked fools trample all over the Olympic spirit and still get to vie for gold, our giant-killing team misses out by the narrowest of margins. The reason the #5 Japanese in Jwala/Ashwini's group lost is that they now get to play the #6 Danish team instead of the more powerful #2 Chinese team, whom the Taiwanese face.
