Table tennis: Singapore's Chew, Poh put up brave fight but lose 3-1 in WTT q-finals

SINGAPORE - The Republic's Clarence Chew and Ethan Poh put up a brave fight, winning the first game, before losing 3-1 (11-13, 11-7, 11-5, 12-10) to China's Wang Chuqin and Fan Zhendong in the quarter-finals of the World Table Tennis Singapore Smash on Tuesday (March 15).

The Singaporean world No. 128 pair had led 4-1 in the second game but a few unforced errors handed the game to the Chinese world No. 33 pair. 

Poh and Chew also took the lead in the next two games but were unable to capitalise on their advantage.  Still, they were both proud of their performance and added that they had learnt a lot from the ongoing tournament at the OCBC Arena. 

Chew, 26, said: “We played well in the beginning without any pressure and forced them to make a lot of mistakes. Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be so close, but in the end it’s more about the finer details.

“In the second game, we were leading and they made some adjustments while we started to play more conservatively so we made a few mistakes.

“That’s something we have to work on as a pair but overall, I’m very satisfied with our performance and I think we can build on this for future tournaments.” 

Poh, 23, added: “It was a pity, especially when we were leading in the second game. If we had capitalised on that, maybe it would have been a different result but nonetheless, we can look back and improve for the future. 

“Mainly, we need to improve on how we deal with tight situations when the scores are really close and cherish every point. Playing against the Chinese team, how they analyse the situation is different from us so we have to learn from them as well

“Overall, we still have to be proud of ourselves because it’s not every day we can give the Chinese team a good fight.”

On Sunday, Chew and Poh had upset world No. 7 duo Ovidiu Ionescu and Alvaro Robles in the previous round.

Ionescu and Robles, who are from Romania and Spain respectively, had claimed the silver medal at the 2019 World Championships.

National men’s coach Gao Ning praised his charges for their performance but added that they had to work more on areas such as executing and receiving serves, their on-court movement and placement of the ball.

He said: “They played better today and although it was a difficult opponent, we had hoped to attack them more. 

“They had a chance in the second game but they were rushing and wanted to win each point quickly."