The Malaysia national women's badminton team were handed an opening defeat at the 2018 Uber Cup on Monday as they lost to Indonesia.

In the first match, Soniia Cheah bounced back from a poor first set to overcome Fitriani, whom she recently lost to at the 2018 All England Open, with a 10-21, 21-17, 21-14 score.

However, scratch pair Goh Yea Ching and Lee Meng Yean were unable to maintain Malaysia's momentum in the following match as they were beaten 13-21, 14-21 by Indian Open winning pair Apriyani Rahayu and Greysia Polii.

The third match, pitting 2015 world junior champion Goh Jin Wei against latest winner Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, saw Indonesia take a 2-1 overall lead.

Goh was initially in control at the start of the match, leading 11-5 but unfortunately conceded the first set 20-22, before losing the second set 16-21.

Commonwealth Games winners Chow Mei Kuan and Vivian Hoo failed to rally Malaysia back into contention as they crashed to a 22-24, 22-20, 12-21 loss at the hands of Della Destiara Haris and Rizki Amelia Pradipta.

With the pair's defeat, it rendered S. Kisona's final match against Ruselli Hartawan a dead rubber, and Malaysia will now face an uphill task of progressing out of Group D to the quarter-finals.

They will next take on defending champions China, who have never failed to reach the Uber Cup final since 1984, on Tuesday, followed by a match against France on Wednesday.