Friday, July 3, 2009
9:51 PM
ASIAN Youth Games - Bronze for Singapore
Our youths settled for a bronze medal in the Asian Youth Games table tennis competition, after faltering against Top Seeds, China, in the Semi-finals of the mixed team on Friday evening.

China's Chen Meng whipped Isabelle Li in straight sets, winning 3-0. Chen took an early 2-0 lead in the first set before Isabelle fought back and led 4-3, her first lead of the game. The Singaporean widened her advantage to 9-6, but Chen staged a furious comeback to win the set 11-9. In the second set, Chen took the lead from the first point and never gave Isabelle a hope of winning the set, which went 11-7 to the Chinese national. Chen then built up a strong 8-3 lead in the third, and though Isabelle managed to return her opponent’s shots, she failed to prevent Chen from wrapping up the set 11-8.

However Clarence Chew salvaged some pride for Singapore by winning one set although he eventually lost 1-3 to Cheng Jing Qi. In the first set, Clarence answered Cheng’s early 3-0 lead with 3 straight of his own, but this was the closest that Clarence could get, as his opponent finished strongly to take the set 11-8. An 8-3 second set lead set Clarence up for an eventual 11-7 win, but the Singapore player could not find his way round Cheng’s aggressive attack, and he conceded the 3rd and 4th sets 4-11, 6-11.

Despite the defeat, the Singapore players were happy with their performance. Isabelle said that overall she think she played quite well, but she think she attacked too much at the end. However, Coach Xu felt that the players had a chance to win, but did not cherish it.

Earlier on, in front of a 200-strong crowd at the Toa Payoh Sports Hall, the Republic's Isabelle Li opened proceedings with a 3-1 win over Mallika Bhandarkar. There were long rallies between both players, as they exchanged returns and waited for the other to make mistakes. Sure enough, points were earned by both sides when Mallika and Isabelle each made swift shots, catching the other off-guard. Mallika took a different approach, she is patient and mostly stayed close to the table, choosing to stretch her arms out to receive the shots from Isabelle. However, Isabelle proved why she is World No. 8 when she wrapped the first 2 sets up with a comfortable score of 11-3 in both games. However, she lost her focus in the third set and was trailing all the way after securing the opening point. Mallika won the set 11-9. Isabelle came back in the fourth game, but not without a fight from Mallika. The supporters were given a scare when Mallika suddenly chalked up 5 straight points to make the score 8-7. From then on, Isabelle did not give Mallika any chance snd won the game 11-7.

Then, fellow Singapore Sports School student Clarence Chew defeated Arnab Adhikari with another 3-0 margin to ensure a deciding mixed doubles tie was not required. Clarence constantly altered his shot direction, and that forced his opponent to stretch from one end of the table to another. Clarence won the first 2 sets 11-7, 11-4. The third game was marred with confusion during the fifth service. Clarence had hit the ball out, but it was not certain whether the ball had touched the table before going wide. Clarence was about to be given the point as the assistant umpire indicated that the ball had indeed hit the edge of the table before going out. However, Arnab protested against the decision, along with his coach from the sidelines. The umpire then ruled that the point would be replayed. Another commotion came up in the dying seconds of the game when Clarence was 10-9 up. Singapore’s Coach, Xu Xiang Dong, tried to called for a time-out to give Clarence some advice for the crucial final point. The umpires failed to hear his request and allowed the match to go on. Clarence proceeded to lost the point, sending the game into a deuce at 10-10. Coach Xu finally got his request then, and with that, Clarence stormed home to clinch the final 2 points, winning the game 12-10.

The other bronze in the event went to Chinese Taipei players who lost to North Korea.




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