SINGAPORE – The Republic’s prime male participant Koen Pang paid scant regard to the gulf in rankings because the world No. 161 upset Brazil’s Thirty eighth-ranked Gustavo Tsuboi 4-2 (11th of September, 11-7, 11-7, 13-11, 11th of September, 11-6) to achieve the final 32 of the World Desk Tennis Championships in Houston, United States on Wednesday (Nov 24).
The 19-year-old will face his idol and one other formidable foe in former world No. 1 Timo Boll on Thursday. The 40-year-old German has 4 Olympic group medals and eight World Championships medals, together with a males’s singles bronze in 2011.
Regardless of presently serving Nationwide Service and having to play within the males’s singles and combined doubles, Pang confirmed no indicators of fatigue or ringrust and took the sport to 36-year-old Tsuboi, who had reached the boys’s singles spherical of 16 at Tokyo 2020.
He advised The Straits Instances: “We analysed him properly, got here up with a recreation plan and caught to it. He likes to serve fast lengthy balls and play at pace, which I needed to sustain with. I additionally tried to alter the location of the balls once I may to disrupt his momentum and mess up his recreation and it labored at this time.
“I am ecstatic to beat such a higher-ranked participant and excited to play Timo Boll, whom I watched play since I used to be younger.
“Enjoying in two occasions will not be an issue as I’ve performed extra matches on the junior tour.”
Pang served discover of his potential when he was the primary Singaporean to prime a desk tennis world rating by reaching the summit of the Underneath-18 boys’ checklist in August 2019. Later that 12 months, the southpaw grew to become the primary Singapore-born desk tennis participant to win the South-east Asian Video games males’s singles gold.
At these World Championships, he had crushed Italy’s world No. 163 Leonardo Mutti within the males’s singles and teamed up with Lin Ye as a 68th-ranked combined doubles pairing to beat Egypt’s world No. 23 duo Yousra Helmy and Khalid Assar.
They are going to play Turkey’s world No. 93 Ibrahim Gunduz and Sibel Altinkaya for a spot within the final 16.
Males’s singles coach Gao Ning stated: “Koen was in good type by way of returning serves at this time and confirmed good recreation management. We’ll handle his restoration as he’s nonetheless concerned within the combined doubles. In opposition to Timo Boll, Koen might want to brush up on his defence.”
Within the girls’s singles, Singapore’s world No. 11 Feng Tianwei bounced again to beat Chinese language Taipei’s 169th-ranked Li Yu-jhun 4-2 (7-11, 11th of September, 13-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-7).
The 35-year-old will face South Korea’s Suh Hyo-won within the spherical of 32. The world No. 22 has a 7-4 head-to-head file towards Feng.
Feng advised ST: “I wasn’t used to the opponent’s fashion of play within the opening rounds and could not adapt. Taking down the third recreation was essential as a result of it might have been troublesome to come back again from 3-0 down.
“Total I really feel optimistic that I used to be capable of come from behind and win. I used to be on a good keel and did not panic.”
Feng’s coach He Keyi added: “Tianwei displayed good mentality towards an aggressive opponent at this time. I advised her to not concentrate on the top end result, however to go on the market and present what she was able to. Ultimately she acquired into the groove and was capable of decide on her opponent’s weaknesses.
“For the following match, Suh Hyo-won is a defensive chopper, so Tianwei must be affected person and play her personal recreation.”
There was additionally excellent news for Singapore within the girls’s doubles as world No. 69 pairing Goi Rui Xuan and Wong Xin Ru beat India’s 103rd-ranked Madhurika Patkar and Sutirtha Mukherjee 3-0 (11-3, 11-7, 11-4) to arrange a spherical of 32 conflict with Germany’s world No. 18 Sabine Winter and Nina Mittelham.
Nonetheless, within the girls’s singles, world No. 193 Goi misplaced 4-1 (11-8, 11-7, 11-5, 11-13, 11-5) to Thailand’s Thirty ninth-ranked Suthasini Sawettabut, whereas world No. 61 Lin was crushed 4-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-4, 11-3) by China’s world No. 1 and Olympic girls’s singles champion Chen Meng.
