One more match as S'pore women's team seek gold

Singapore took a big step towards reclaiming the Commonwealth Games table tennis women's team gold after sweeping Australia 3-0 in the semi-finals yesterday.

They will face either Wales or Malaysia - the other semi-final result was unavailable at press time - in today's final at Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre.

The shock exit of defending champions India, at the hands of Malaysia on Saturday, meant Australia were arguably the Republic's biggest threat remaining.

But world No. 16 Feng Tianwei and her teammates rarely looked troubled despite facing opponents who were using pimpled bats that create more spin variety, sealing the country's six straight appearance in the final for this event.

Zeng Jian, 25, and Zhou Jingyi, 17, gave four-time champions Singapore the perfect start as they beat Lay Jian Fang, 49, and 35-year-old Jee Min-hyung 3-1 (11-3, 13-11, 10-12, 11-4) in the first match.

Feng, at her fourth Games, used all her experience to overcome 72nd-ranked Liu Yangzi 3-1 (14-12, 6-11, 11-5, 11-5). It was then left to Zeng to seal the victory as she beat Lay 3-0 (11-5, 12-10, 11-8).

Singapore team manager Eddy Tay said: "It was crucial we took down the doubles match to give confidence to the singles players later. We won't be taking the final for granted."

Earlier, Clarence Chew and Koen Pang battled back from big deficits and saved match points before leading Singapore to a 3-0 win over Canada in the men's team quarter-finals.

They face England, who beat Cyprus 3-0, in today's semi-finals. The other last-four clash is between defending champions India and 2018 finalists Nigeria.

Despite playing together only this year, the unranked Singaporeans Pang and Izaac Quek beat Jeremy Hazin and Edward Ly 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-4).

Chew then survived three match points against Eugene Wang before prevailing 3-2 (7-11, 11-5, 9-11, 13-11, 13-11).

After losing the first two games, Pang also conjured up a great escape as he beat Ly 3-2 (11-13, 7-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6) to clinch the tie.

Since table tennis was included in the Games in 2002, Singapore have won two gold, one silver and one bronze medals in the men's team event but lost the bronze-medal play-off to England in 2018.

National men's team coach Gao Ning said: "I'm pleased with our team's fighting spirit and hope we'll do more of the same tomorrow.

"We're underdogs against England, so there's no pressure on us.

"Hopefully they are the ones feeling stressed in front of the home crowd. With good preparation, i hope we can be ready to capitalise."