SINGAPORE - The national men's table tennis team are still looking for their first victory at the 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Halmstad, Sweden, following their 3-0 loss to England on Tuesday (May 1).

England took the lead when Paul Drinkhall beat Ethan Poh 11-7, 11-3, 7-11, 11-7, and Liam Pitchford doubled the advantage when he beat Pang Xue Jie 11-3, 11-4, 116.

Samuel Walker then wrapped up the tie by beating Beh Kun Ting 9-11, 11-8, 11-2, 11-3 in the third match for the winning point.

Earlier in the competition, the Republic lost 0-3 to Chinese Taipei and Belarus, and 2-3 to Belgium. Singapore will face Japan in their final Group C tie on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, defending champions and world No. 1 women's team China dropped a match for the first time in the same tournament, but still cruised past Singapore with a 3-1 Group A victory on Tuesday.

World No. 4 Feng Tianwei gave the Republic the lead when she beat world No. 5 Wang Manyu 3-1 (4-11, 13-11, 14-12, 14-12) in the first match.

But China - who beat Russia, India and Belarus in straight matches earlier in the competition - pulled a point back in the best-of-five tie when former world No. 1 Ding Ning, now ranked 11th, whitewashed Singapore's Lin Ye, ranked 93rd in the world, 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-4) in the second match.

China took the lead when current world No. 1 Chen Meng thrashed 18-year-old Zhang Wanling 3-0 (11-3, 11-1, 11-3) in the third match, before Ding, 27, scored the winning point for her team when she beat Feng 3-0 (11-9, 11-1, 11-9).

Both Singapore and China are already assured of a place in the knock-out rounds, which starts on Wednesday (May 2).

The top three teams of each of the four groups advance from the group stages, with the four winners receiving a bye to the quarter-finals.

Earlier in the competition, Singapore beat hosts Sweden 3-2, and both Russia and India 3-0.

Feng and Co will play Belarus in their final Group A tie early on Wednesday morning (Singapore time).

Singapore lost 2-3 to North Korea in the last eight at the 2016 edition in Malaysia.