Adaptation key for veterans in wins over younger rivals

Veterans Ma Long and Ni Xialian have a wealth of experience but both were forced to dig deep to advance at the World Table Tennis Singapore Smash yesterday.

Ni, 58, and Sarah de Nutte, 29, had to come from a game down to beat Germany's Sabine Winter and Nina Mittelham 3-1 (11-13, 11-7, 12-10, 11-8) in the women's doubles.

Trailing by four points in the fourth game, Ni decided to take a risk by modifying her serve and it paid off as the pair clawed back the deficit and won the match.

Ni said: "The opponents are very flexible so we also can't have just one tactic. We need to adapt depending on the situation.

"We didn't give up and tried our best for every point, we took some risks and succeeded.

"I made some mistakes but I'm happy that I can learn from them and that's why in the end, we came back and that's what makes sport interesting."

The world No. 9s from Luxembourg play world champions Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu in the semi-finals today. The Chinese have a combined age that is 14 years younger than Ni, but the veteran is looking forward to learning from the younger duo.

She added: "I'm very proud that we have this opportunity to play against the Chinese. To reach the semi-finals and play against them, it's an honour and it feels like we've already won."

Olympic champion Ma, 33, was made to work for his 3-2 (12-10, 6-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6) victory over compatriot Wang Chuqin, 21, for a spot in the men's singles quarter-finals.

Ma was trailing 2-1 before he took a more aggressive tack and forced his opponent into making errors.

Later, Ma, who had lost 3-1 to Wang at the WTT Macau event in January, said he knew the match would be a tough one and was pleased with the win.

He said: "I've watched Wang Chuqin's improvement and growth the past few years and he's one of the most outstanding young players now. So with his standards, I couldn't be too relaxed or try to target his weak points too easily.

"I had to identify his weaknesses slowly, point by point and think of different strategies for different situations, whether I'm serving or receiving his serve.

"After the first game, he changed his serve in the second and third game. But in the decider, maybe it's about who's stronger mentally. It was a close game and when I led 4-2, I started doing better so it was a smoother end for me."

Ma was able to ride on the support of the crowd, who cheered him on whether he was leading or trailing, and he was grateful.

"The fans here are very enthusiastic and there were so many cheering us on from the first day and during working hours. For athletes, that's a form of motivation," he said.

"With Covid-19, there are requirements like having to wear masks and they might be affected when they cheer, but they still come to support us, so I hope that we can put on our best performance and let them feel that coming here to watch us is worth it."