Singapore Smash: ‘dominant’ Wong Chun-ting into round of 32 as Doo Hoi-kem and Lee Ho-ching await knockouts

City’s top men’s paddler Wong through to round of 32 but Tokyo Olympic medallist Minnie Soo crashes out
Mixed doubles entrants Ho and Germany’s Mittelham leaves it late, while Lee and Qiu face agonising defeat

ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation)

Andrew McNicolandChan Kin-wa

Published: 8:30pm, 12 Mar 2022

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Team Hong Kong continued their mixed-bag Singapore Smash campaign on Saturday, with men’s singles star Wong Chun-ting and mixed doubles player Ho Kwan-kit advancing, but women’s paddler Minnie Soo Wai-yam bowing out.

The 30-year-old Wong eased past higher-ranked Jang Woo-jin of South Korea in the round of 64, winning 3-1 (13-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5) at the Singapore Sports Hub’s OCBS Arena.

World No 22 Wong will play Patrick Franziska of Germany in the round of 32.

Hong Kong table tennis player Wong Chun-ting after winning a men’s doubles match with Ho Kwan-kit at the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, the US. Photo: AP

“He played well,” coach Chan Kong-wah said. “Especially in the first three sets where he was very dominant.”

Wong is the city’s last men’s singles entrant after teammates Lam Siu -hang and Ho Kwan-kit fell to Belgium’s Cedric Nuytinck 1-3 (11-6, 7-11, 6-11, 8-11) and Taiwan’s Liao Cheng-ting 0-3 (8-11, 3-11, 5-11), respectively.

Meanwhile, Tokyo Olympic team bronze medallist Soo was outclassed by veteran Yuan Jianan of France 3-0 (2-11, 6-11, 10-12).

The 23-year-old’s athletic career was already up in the air after revealing that she planned to study physics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, as she rehabilitates a niggling nerve problem in her right arm.

“It was a normal result. Soo did her part,” coach Chan said.

Hong Kong table tennis player Lee Ho-ching at the Tokyo Olympic Games women’s team round of 16 event game at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Japan. Photo: AFP

In a mixed doubles twist, Ho partnered German Mittelham to beat Slovakian pair Barbora Balazova and Lubomir Pistej in a 3-2 end-to-end sizzler (11-9, 9-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-6) to set up a quarter-final spot.

Hong Kong’s in-form Lee and Germany’s Qiu Dang also gave Singaporean fans an entertaining game against French pair Emmanuel Lebesson and Yuan Jianan, but lost the deciding set 3-2 (13-11, 8-11, 11-8, 6-11, 9-11) to close the city’s outing for the night. Lebesson and Yuan compete against Ho and Mittelham next.

Hong Kong’s only permitted pure mixed doubles team of Wong and Doo encounter Petrissa Sojla and Franziska of Germany on Sunday.

Hong Kong to send all top table tennis players to Singapore Smash

Also on Sunday, the city’s top-ranked women’s player Doo Hoi-kem will face Sofia Polcanova of Austria, while in-form teammate Lee will take on South Korean Suh Hyo-won.

With the men’s doubles team already out on Friday, it is up to women’s duo Doo and Lee to continue their run against Sabine Winter and Mittelham.

Team Hong Kong opened their Singapore Smash campaign with women’s singles wins from Tokyo Olympic bronze medal winners Doo and Lee, while Wong and men’s doubles teammate Ho fell in the preliminaries. Fellow entrants Ng Wing-nam and Zhu Chengzhu also lost.

Elsewhere, Chinese men’s world No 1 Fan Zhendong and reigning Olympic men’s singles champion Ma Long are still in contention after beating Tiago Apolonia and Marcos Freitas of Portugal, respectively.

Women’s world No 1 Sun Yingsha will face teammate Kuai on Sunday, as former top-ranked Liu Shiwen and fellow stars Wang Manyu and double Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Chen Meng also still in with a path to the finals.

The WTT Grand Smash is a new series on the table tennis circuit, with its inaugural Singapore Smash offering a record purse of US$2 million.

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