S’pore paddlers fall at final hurdle in Japan Open

SINGAPORE — A day after claiming the biggest scalps of their table tennis career — second-seeded Chinese pair Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen — at the US$220,000 (S$297,000) Japan Open, Singapore’s women’s doubles pair of Li Ye and Zhou Yihan could not overcome their final hurdle against Liu Fei and Wu Yang of China yesterday, losing the final 4-1 to dash their hopes of winning their first-ever professional title on the International Table Tennis Federation World Tour.

Surprise gold medallists at the recent 28th SEA Games — they had defeated their more illustrious teammates Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu in the women’s doubles final — the pair took their giant-slaying run to the Japan Open. The Singaporeans first despatched Hong Kong’s third-seeded pair of Lee Ho Ching and Tie Yana 3-2 in the quarter-finals , before upsetting Ding and Liu — the world No 1 and 2 — in straights sets (3-0) in the next round.

But against defensive specialists Liu and Wu in yesterday’s final, the Singaporean paddlers soon found themselves on the back foot early in the encounter, losing the first game 11-6. Despite claiming the next game 11-7, Lin and Ye — who are 19 and 21 years old, respectively — eventually succumbed 11-6, 7-11, 11-9, 11-5 to the Chinese duo.

Head coach Jing Junhong was delighted with the progress her young charges — who also finshed second at the Qatar Open in February — have shown this year.

“They were leading in the third game and it is a pity that they didn’t win,” she said. “But our players have put in a very good performance at the Japan Open, they raised their standard and this will be good experience for them in the future. After winning at the SEA Games, it gave them confidence to do well in Japan. They have made some breakthroughs here, but they are both very young. They are on the path of improvement, but the road is a long one.”

While the Japan Open proved to be a happy hunting ground for Lin and Zhou, it was not the case for team-mates Feng and Yu. The top-seeded duo were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Hong Kong’s Doo Hoi Kem and Jiang Huajun, and world No 4 Feng — who is recovering from a recurring knee injury — had also suffered a shock loss to Japan’s Wakamiya Misako (43) in the first round of the women’s singles.

Jing said the players will be given a week’s break after the Japan Open, with their Olympic qualifying campaign to restart at the China Open in August. LOW LIN FHOONG