SINGAPORE – Making his senior debut at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in August 2022, Izaac Quek saw his campaign end in the men’s singles quarter-finals after a 4-0 defeat by eventual champion Sharath Kamal Achanta.
On Saturday, the 16-year-old found himself across the table from the Indian veteran once again in his opening match at the World Table Tennis Singapore Smash. And the plucky player swiftly turned the tables on his opponent, who at 40 is more than double his age and is ranked 191 places above him at world No. 51.
With the OCBC Arena slowly coming to life on a Saturday afternoon, the lunchtime crowd of about 100 were as surprised as Izaac to witness his 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 12-10) victory against Achanta, as he became the first Singaporean to win a men’s singles match in the main draw of the tournament.
Izaac, who had expected to lose the rematch, said: “He’s a very experienced player who has played in many major Games and has a lot of experience in competitions. I was ready to face the same difficulties as I did last year.
“I started playing in many men’s tournaments this year, so I’ve been transitioning well from playing at the youth to senior level. So I was more prepared for this match as compared to last year, when my playing style was not very mature.”
Izaac, who is the first Singaporean to top the Under-15 boys’ world rankings, added: “He made a lot of changes in the last set, so I had to adapt to his play and calm myself down and just focus on playing the game a point at a time.”
He will play Sweden’s world No. 36 Mattias Falck in the next round.
The teenager was back on court later for the mixed doubles with partner Zhou Jingyi, as the duo were beaten 3-0 (11-5, 11-3, 11-5) by South Korea’s Shin Yu-bin and Lim Jong-hoon in the first round.
Singapore’s Koen Pang and Wong Xin Ru also made a first-round exit after losing 3-1 (11-7, 8-11, 11-3, 11-8) to Austrian duo Sofia Polcanova and Robert Gardos. Also bowing out in the women’s singles were Goi Rui Xuan and Wong, who were beaten 3-1 and 3-0 by Egypt’s Dina Meshref and Hungary’s Georgina Pota respectively.
Earlier in the day, world No. 56 Zeng Jian had seemed poised for an upset win over France’s world No. 19 Yuan Jia Nan in the women’s singles, but eventually lost 3-2 (11-7, 10-12, 12-10, 5-11, 11-8).
But the Singaporean made up for the disappointment in the last match of the day, partnering Clarence Chew to defeat Nicholas Lum and Jee Minhyung of Australia 3-1 (6-11, 11-6, 11-3, 11-6) in the mixed doubles.
The pair had also beaten Lum and Jee in their previous encounter at the 2022 Commonwealth Games to claim the bronze medal.
Chew, 27, said: “We were prepared technically and had an idea of how to execute our play. During the first set, they were very aggressive and we were caught by surprise, but for the subsequent three sets we managed to get into rhythm and take it slow.”
Day one of the Singapore Smash went largely according to script, with the tournament’s top players breezing through their first-round matches. China’s men’s world No. 1 Fan Zhendong defeated Sweden’s Anton Kallberg 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-7), while compatriot Chen Meng, ranked second, beat Japan’s Miyu Nagasaki 3-1 in the women’s singles.
But Germany’s world No. 9 Dimitrij Ovtcharov was sent packing after a 3-2 (6-11, 11-5, 7-11, 11-9, 11-6) loss to Japan’s 49th-ranked Shunsuke Togami.
