SINGAPORE - For two decades, they had claimed a medal in the women's team event at the Asian Games. On Monday night (Aug 27), Singapore's proud record came to an end as Feng Tianwei and Co bowed out after losing 3-1 to South Korea in the quarter-finals at the Jakarta International Expo.
According to coach Hao Anlin, his charges had been disadvantaged by both the present and the past.
Their being drawn in Group D - the only one with five countries while the other three groups had just four - meant the women spent more minutes on the court.
Singapore had to play two group games on Monday - they beat Vietnam and Malaysia 3-0 - before the quarter-finals which was South Korea's only match of the day.
World No. 11 Feng, who got the Republic off to a fine start when she beat world No. 12 Suh Hyo-won 9-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-7 before suffering an 11-8, 11-8, 11-8 loss to Jeon Ji-hee in the last match, said: "I played thrice on Sunday and four times today and expended quite a lot of energy.
"The South Koreans were very aggressive today and I could feel the strain and fatigue, especially in my thigh, which affected my performance."
Hao, who took over the reins from Chen Zhibin in May last year, also felt that his team have not adapted as quickly as other countries to the bigger plastic balls now in use - even though that switch took place in 2014.
"This has neutralised some of the strengths and advantages our players once had," he said.
"We not only have to adapt, but we also need to improve on our fitness and technique, and come up with different playing styles to combat these changes and challenges."
After Feng's opening victory, the wheels started to come off when Yu Mengyu (47th) took the first game against Jeon (21st), only to lose 9-11, 12-10, 11-9, 13-11.
Lin Ye (67th) then lost the third singles match 11-6, 13-11, 11-3 to Yang Ha-eun (30th), before Feng's loss to Jeon sealed South Korea's place in the semi-finals and guaranteed them at least a joint bronze.
Hao declined to pin the failure to progress on their inability to beat fourth seeds Hong Kong on Sunday. The sixth seeds had lost 3-1 and top spot in the group, which could have led to a kinder draw, but Hao said: "There are also other strong teams like Japan and Chinese Taipei that finished second in their groups that we could have faced if we were top."
The national women's team's results have declined steadily over the years. They reached their peak when they took the silver at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and then beat China to win the 2010 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Russia.
At the Asian Games, they brought home two silvers in 2006 and 2010, and two bronzes in 2002 and 2014.
But the major medals started drying up from 2016, when they failed to make the podium of the Rio Olympics and the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Malaysia.
This April, they also lost the Commonwealth Games women's team gold to India in Australia, the first time this had happened since table tennis became a medal sport in 2002.
The following month, they were knocked out by Ukraine in the round of 16 of the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Sweden.
The men's and women's doubles events will not feature at this Asiad, but Feng, who won a women's singles bronze in 2014, and Yu can still make amends in the singles event. Gao Ning will play in the men's singles and team up with Yu for the mixed doubles.
