Historic table tennis Europe Smash run for Koen Pang, Izaac Quek ends with semi-final defeat
David Lee for The Straits Times
Singapore pair Koen Pang and Izaac Quek's debut Europe Smash campaign ended with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-5, 11-7) loss to China's Lin Shidong and Huang Youzheng in the men's doubles semi-finals on Aug 22.
But their historic run to the last four gives them confidence to defend their SEA Games table tennis men's doubles gold in Thailand in December.
Pang, 23, told The Straits Times: "They controlled the game really well and we couldn't get into the game. We played some nice points while being aggressive, but there's still a lot of room for improvement.
"Overall, this result will give us confidence going into the SEA Games, after we won a few tight matches."
At the Malmo Arena in Sweden, they produced comeback 3-2 wins against Portuguese wild cards Marcos Freitas and Tiago Apolonia in the last 16 on Aug 20 and then China's men's singles world No. 5 Liang Jingkun and 35th-ranked Wen Ruibo in the quarter-finals on Aug 21.
In doing so, the 14th-ranked duo became the first Singaporeans to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Smash tournament.
However, it was a different ball game against men's singles world No. 1 Lin and 47th-ranked Huang, despite the Chinese pair playing together in only their second international tournament.
After the Singaporeans claimed the first two points on their serve and went on to lead 6-3, the Chinese adapted to win the opener 11-8 and then swiftly took down the second game 11-5.
World No. 140 Pang and 147th-ranked Quek tried to fight back but ran out of steam from 5-6 after both teams used their time-outs, exiting the US$1.55 million (S$2 million) event with US$3,600 and 700 points in their bid to return to the top 10.
Lin and Huang will meet Hong Kong's Wong Chun Ting and Baldwin Chan in the final on Aug 23.
Quek, 19, said: "We didn't play too badly, but we made some unnecessary mistakes which cost us. If we had been able to play our best game, we would have been able to put up a better fight.
"We have been doing quite well in the past two years, and we do have a lot of confidence in our pairing going into any tournament because we know we have what it takes to compete with the best in the world, and this tournament proves it."
The SEA Games champions have achieved some outstanding results in recent years, as they stunned China's then world No. 1 Yuan Licen and Xiang Peng to reach the last four at the WTT Finals in 2024, the year they also won silver at the Asian championships.
In January, they rose to a career-high fifth in the world.
National men's table tennis head coach Gao Ning was pleased with their performance, saying: "The boys played well in Sweden and exceeded our expectations.
"They can still improve in terms of their stability during play, how to deal with the opponents' change in spin and power while receiving and defending, as well as their movement, forecast of what's to come, and covering of their partner."
Quek will next play in the third phase of the China Table Tennis Super League with Anhui Zhongcheng from Aug 29-Sept 1, while Pang will feature in WTT feeder events in Turkey. They will reunite for the Sept 25-Oct 5 China Smash and the Dec 9-20 SEA Games.
