SINGAPORE – In the aftermath of failing to qualify for the Olympics table tennis team events, the Republic’s kids showed they are all right, as the teenage mixed doubles pair of Izaac Quek and Zhou Jingyi wrapped up the first day of the US$1.5 million (S$2m) Singapore Smash with a win to progress to the round of 16.
On March 10, the world No. 65 duo beat Hong Kong’s Lam Siu Hang and Slovakia’s Tatiana Kukulkova 3-0 (11-9, 11-9, 11-1) at the OCBC Arena to set up a meeting against Romania’s world No. 10 Ovidiu Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs.
While their opponents are a ragtag unranked combination, the Singaporeans had just a couple of practice sessions together after returning from playing in the French and Portuguese leagues respectively.
Quek, 17, said: “There’s the uncertainty as we don’t know much about them, but I watched videos of their partnership with other players and studied how they served and received.
“Jingyi and I started partnering from the 2022 Commonwealth Games, but we practise for mixed doubles only when there are competitions like this. I felt we had to focus more on our own technique and tactics than on our opponents.”
Zhou, 18, added: “The cheers from the home crowd helped ease our nerves. While we were not sure how our opponents would play, I think we prepared well and managed to anticipate their shots better and make fewer mistakes as the match went on.”
Joining them in the last 16 are their teammates, world No. 24 Clarence Chew and Zeng Jian, who beat 29th-ranked Australians Liu Yangzi and Aditya Sareen 3-0 (12-10, 11-8, 12-10). They will play world No. 7 Spaniards Alvaro Robles and Maria Xiao for a quarter-final berth.
Chew, 28, felt they were “more resolute and decisive when it came to the crunch”, as they rebounded from 6-9 down in the third game to seal victory.
World No. 57 Zeng put up a strong fight in her women’s singles round-of-64 match against Germany’s 35th-ranked Shan Xiaona before she ran out of steam and lost the last five points and the match 3-2 (6-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6).
She added: “There are still Olympic quotas up for grabs for the singles and mixed doubles later on, so we have to keep fighting.”
In the mixed doubles, Austria’s world No. 23 Robert Gardos and Sofia Polcanova pipped 31st-ranked Koen Pang and Wong Xin Ru 3-2 (3-11, 11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9), while world No. 125 Wong also tested Germany’s world No. 51 Sabine Winter in the women’s singles before losing 3-1 (11-8, 8-11, 11-3, 11-8).
Other than the local hopefuls, the biggest cheers from the 2,000-strong crowd were reserved for the star-studded showdown between Chinese legend Ma Long and French upstart Alexis Lebrun, who threatened an upset.
With the scores tied at 1-1, the 20-year-old led 9-4 in the third game before Ma staged an astonishing comeback to win the frame and the match 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 12-10, 11-4). As the five-gold Olympian kept his cool, Lebrun lost the plot after he slammed his towel on his bench after letting slip a golden opportunity.
Ma, 35, said: “Alexis has made a lot of improvement to become a very respectable opponent, who is very strong and ferocious. I became quite passive after I led 7-3 and lost the second game, but I tried to use my experience to get a better feel and try to get back into the game.”
Other than Ma, the Chinese big guns all came through, as defending men’s singles champion Fan beat Australia’s Finn Luu 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5), while third-ranked women’s singles player Wang Manyu edged India’s world No. 50 Sreeja Akula 3-2 (11-6, 9-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-8).
