Men’s and women’s qualifying singles competition continued on the second day of Singapore Smash, with several local players in action at the OCBC Arena.
The in-form world youth champion Kuai Man also played her first Singapore Smash matches on Tuesday, starting her campaign with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-3) win over Marie Migot of France. The 18-year-old Chinese secured a second win later in the day, defeating Singapore’s Ser Lin Qian 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-7) to advance to the Round of 16.
Kuai, the Under-19 Girls’ Singles champion at the 2021 ITTF World Youth Championships, won the singles and doubles events at last week’s WTT Contender Muscat 2022 – her first senior titles. She said of her victories in Singapore so far: “I’m still trying to get used to the field of play and the environment. I think Asian players and European players have different playing styles as well, and on the whole I’m still trying to get into the groove of playing in this competition. Singapore is more humid and perhaps the ball is a little bit more sticky as well. For the next match (against Zhu Chengzhu of Hong Kong), I’ll do my preparation according to my opponent’s playing style and unique playing attributes, and I’ll just do my best.”
Singaporean Lin Qian, playing in her first senior international tournament after being promoted to the national team in January, was optimistic about her performance. “Playing at the senior level is definitely more challenging than at youth competitions, but it’s a very essential step to take and I’m glad I’m taking it at 16 years old. I just wanted to learn from this experience and treasure the chance to be able to play against players of such a high level,” said the 16-year-old, who held a 7-5 lead in the third game before Kuai caught up. “Even though I had a small lead, one of the reasons she caught up was because she had the confidence to execute her technique, whereas I was a little bit scared and didn’t play my best.”
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Looking forward to the doubles competition, where she will partner compatriot Zhou Jingyi, Lin Qian added: “We’ll do some training and hopefully it will be a memorable experience.”
Fellow Singaporean Pearlyn Koh was also looking ahead to the doubles event after falling 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-8) to Nigerian Olympian Olufunke Oshonaike.
Said the 20-year-old Koh, who will partner Zhang Wanling: “My opponent is a veteran who has played in quite a few Olympic Games and I know she’s a very experienced player. This showed in the second game because the scores were quite close, and towards the end of the game, it was very obvious that she was more calm than me in that situation. So this is something that I can learn from the senior players – even when the scores are close, whether they are leading or trailing, they’re able to handle the situations calmly. I have doubles coming up and regardless of who our opponents are, they will definitely be very strong players. We will practise and prepare as much as we can.”
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Singapore Smash qualifying matches conclude tomorrow, 9 March, with the top eight winners in the men’s and women’s qualifying competition advancing to the main draw. Main draw matches will be played from 11 to 20 March, featuring the likes of two-time Olympic men’s singles champion Ma Long and women’s world No. 1 Sun Yingsha. Tickets are priced from $18. Ticket packages including day passes for the main draw are available from $35. More information can be found at www.sistic.com.sg.
WTT Grand Smashes form the foundation of the WTT Series and the Singapore Smash is the first of the four new pillars of professional table tennis. The event boasts US$2,000,000 in prize money, the biggest prize purse at an officially-sanctioned table tennis event.