Japans Kento Momota celebrates after defeating Malaysia's Jia Lee Zii (unseen) in their men's single match in the Thomas Cup men's team Badminton match between Japan and Malaysia in in Aarhus, Denmark. -AFP PIC
Japans Kento Momota celebrates after defeating Malaysia's Jia Lee Zii (unseen) in their men's single match in the Thomas Cup men's team Badminton match between Japan and Malaysia in in Aarhus, Denmark. -AFP PIC

Winning the first singles in a team event certainly makes a difference as it sets the pace and fires up the mood.

Just ask the Japanese men's team.

They will surely attest that world No 1 Kento Momota's hard-fought win over world No 8 Lee Zii Jia made all the difference as Japan crushed Malaysia 4-1 in their Group D tie of the Thomas Cup in Aarhus, Denmark.

With his back against the wall, Momota pulled out the stops as he squeezed home a morale charging 15-21, 21-12, 23-21 win in 80 minutes.

Maybe the outcome would have been different had Zii Jia taken his two match point opportunities in the deciding rubber.

But the All-England champion missed both opportunities and was made to pay.

"I think Momota upped the pace in the second game, and I dropped my pace a little," admitted Zii Jia.

"The intensity from the first game was very high and perhaps I couldn't recover as well.

"But everything still went pretty well until the end with the unforced error when I was 20-19 up and that is really disappointing for me."

And after watching the team captain fall short, other Malaysian shuttlers also mostly folded under the Japanese onslaught.

The biggest disappointment was Olympic bronze medallists Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik who were hammered 21-13, 21-13 by world No 16 Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi in first doubles.

World No 70 Cheam June Wei was then tasked with salvaging Malaysia's hopes, but he was unable to sustain the momentum after a bright start as he lost 22-20, 21-13 to world No 13 Kanta Tsuneyama.

The scratch pair of Akira Koga-Yuta Watanabe then went rampant against world No 26 Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani for a 21-10, 21-16 win and a 4-0 lead.

Former Asian Junior champion Leong Jun Hao salvaged some pride for Malaysia as he downed world No 16 Kenta Nishimoto 21-19, 21-18 in the third singles tie.

With the defeat, Malaysia finish as runners-up in Group D and will have to face a seeded opponent in the quarter-finals.

Japan, on the other hand, qualify for the last eight as the second seeds behind Group A winners Indonesia.

The joint third-fourth seeds are Group B winners Denmark and Group C champions China.

The other teams in the quarter-finals are Thailand, South Korea and India.