BUDDING table tennis internationals Cheung Cho-kiu, Wong Yuk-chiu, Chu Chun-chung and Chan Chi-pang learnt a valuable lesson in Hydarabad, India, although they all failed to survive the opening round in the singles event.
Making their debut at the Commonwealth Championships, the four students gave a good account of themselves and should greatly benefit from the exposure.
Sixteen-year-old Chun-chung, a student at the Yuen Yuen Institute No 1 Secondary School, came closest to winning against India's Kishalya Basak, but experience told as he squandered a 2-0 lead and went down in five games.
He took the first two games 21-17, 21-9 but cracked up and allowed his Indian rival, cheered on by a vociferous home crowd, to recover and levelled the tally - losing the next two games 17-21, 15-21.
The decider was a marathon battle of nerves and could have gone either way, but Basak eventually prevailed 32-30.
Cho-kiu, Yuk-chiu and Chi-pang were all beaten in straight games.