Hong Kong’s table tennis squad crash out of WTT Star Contender in Doha
- Lee Ho-ching puts up close fight against Zhang Rui before losing in women’s singles
- Two women’s doubles pairs also fail to reach semi-finals, while Wong Chun-ting is stopped in men’s singles round of 16
Hong Kong’s table tennis players crashed out of the WTT 2022 Star Contender Doha tournament on Tuesday, after losing all five matches.
Lee Ho-ching came closest to progressing at the Lusail Sports Arena in Qatar’s capital, and put up a strong fight in the women’s singles round of 16 match, before losing to her Chinese rival Zhang Rui in four close games.
Despite starting in the qualifiers, Zhang, who is not among her nation’s top players, still proved too strong for her opponent, who was a member of the Hong Kong side that won team bronze at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics.
China did not send their top players to Middle East after completing a clean sweep of all five titles at the Singapore Smash earlier this month, but their second or even third tier of players were strong enough.
In a close encounter, Zhang beat Lee 3-1 (11-9, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9) with all four games decided by no more than three points.
Lee also reached the round of 16 at the US$2 million tournament in Singapore, and despite being one Hong Kong’s better players still found it too difficult against Zhang.
“Zhang showed very good calculation in her attack during the big points and that’s why she was able to win in a close game,” Hong Kong coach’s, who is also called Zhang Rui, said.
