Table Tennis: Double joy for Singapore as Zeng Jian, Izaac Quek win SEA Games singles golds

SINGAPORE: Singapore's table tennis team struck gold in the women's and men's singles events on Tuesday (May 16), with Zeng Jian and Izaac Quek winning their finals at the SEA Games in Cambodia.

Zeng edged out Thailand's Suthasini Sawettabut 4-3 in a seven-game thriller.

The 26-year-old went into the final on a hot streak of form, after sweeping past Thai opponent Paranang Orawan 11-7, 6-11, 12-10, 11-9, 15-13 in the semi-finals earlier in the day, winning four games to one.

World No 55 Zeng got off to a quick start in the first game as she capitalised on errors made by Suthasini to win 11-8.

Zeng then raced off to a 5-1 lead in the second game and while Suthasini tried to fight back, she could not handle the pace set by the Singaporean, whose crisp backhand was proving to be particularly problematic to deal with. 

She took the second game 11-8 with less than 20 minutes gone on the clock.

Sensing the final was slipping from her grasp, Suthasini, 19, decided to take more risks in the third game to try to take the match to Zeng and led 7-6.

But more unforced errors proved to be the Thai's undoing and while the third game was a see-saw affair - the score was tied at 9-9 at one point. Zeng's cooler head prevailed in the rallies and she edged out Suthasini 11-9 for a three-game lead.

Suthasini mounted another fightback in the fourth game, going up 6-1 courtesy of several long returns by her opponent and her momentum saw her take the game 11-3, after Zeng hit the ball out of bounds.

There were early moments of nerves for Zeng after that and Suthasini was putting on some top spin on her serve to give her opponent trouble.

However, Zeng managed to pull level at 5-5 before Suthasini's coach called for a timeout, seeking to reassess her