Youth Olympic Table Tennis: Isabelle Li and Clarence Chew make it out of Round of 32

Story by Noor Farhan/Red Sports. Photos by Tan Jon Han/Red Sports

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Saturday, August 21, 2010 — Singapore’s Isabelle Li and Clarence Chew progressed to the Round of 16 in the Youth Olympic Games table tennis competition.

Isabelle Li Si Yun won two out of three games in the Round of 32 matches, her sole loss coming against Ayuka Tanioka of Japan after a tremendous display of table tennis by both players.

The men’s competition saw Clarence Chew Zhe Yu succumbing to a comprehensive defeat to Hung Tzu-Hsiang of Chinese Taipei. Clarence won both his games against players from Malawi and Tunisia.

In her first match, Isabelle quickly overpowered Alice Loveridge of Great Britain with a score of 14-12, 11-1, 11-3.

A nervy first set saw her opponent take the fight to her before Isabelle won a hard-fought 14-12 set.

The vociferous cheering from the home crowd rattled the nerves of Great Britain’s Loveridge, as she surrendered the second set meekly in a 11-1 defeat in under three minutes. Isabelle managed to build a strong 5-1 lead within one and a half minutes and powered her way to the second set.

Isabelle’s good defensive-counterattacking play put her in good stead for her final set, as Loveridge had no answer to her chopping style. Iasablle wrapped up the third set 11-3 in under 3:20 minutes.

“I was very happy with the home support, though I feel there is room for improvement,” said Isabelle.

The second game in the Round of 32 for Isabelle was a different ball game altogether for the girl of few words. She lost 2-3 (9-11, 5-11, 11-9, 18-16, 6-11) to her Japanese opponent Ayuka Tanioka who proved to be a handful.

Isabelle yielded the first two sets 9-11, 5-11 but mounted a ferocious fightback soon after in the third set to win 11-9.

The diminutive player from the land of the rising sun was not to be upstaged as she set up one of the higher scoring sets of table tennis all morning.

Trailing 5-1 at 2:30 in the fourth set, the Japanese fought back to level the score at 7-7 at 5:08. The tense atmosphere could be felt throughout the Indoor Stadium as both players brought the score to 12-12 after a long duel. Singapore fans breathed a little easier when the fourth set eventually went in favour of Isabelle, 18-16.

Unfortunately, Isabelle could not keep up the pace, succumbing to a 6-11 defeat in the fifth and final set of her second match.

In her final match of the first stage, she faced Julia Wu of New Zealand, a much easier opponent, breezing through 11-3, 11-2, 11-5 after a series of unforced errors on the part of the Kiwi.

In the men’s event saw Clarence Chew repeated the feat of his female teammate in the first match, this time against Malawi’s Patrick Massah, winning 11-3, 11-2, 11-5.

The 15 year-old Singapore Sports School student’s outstanding technical ability saw him overcome the Malawian with relative ease in all three sets without much of a fight.

“After the first set, I had to get used to the atmosphere as I was a bit nervous coming into the match. But I must say, being able to win the first match was a good feeling,” said Clarence Chew, clearly satisfied with his performance.

His second match of the day was a complete reversal of his first match, as he stumbled to a muted 6-11, 4-11, 8-11 defeat to a much stronger Hung Tzu-Hsiang of Chinese Taipei.

Adem Hmam of Tunisia, however, proved to be a tough nut to crack in Clarence’s final match of the first stage.

The wily Singaporean started brightly into the first set, going up 2-1 just 53 seconds into the match. A hard-earned comeback by the Tunisian soon ensued, as he caught up 6-6 by the third minute. The Singaporean’s accurate smashes proved too fast and he wrapped up the first set 11-7.

In the second set, it was Tunisia who drew first blood, going 1-0 up in the fourth second. However, Clarence caught up to lead by 8-5 by 3:20.

Clarence showed some nerves when he conceded unnecessary points with the score at 10-8 at 4:19 but he eventually won the second set 11-9.

The third set began brightly for Singapore as Clarence built a 5-3 lead by the third minute. Hmam had other ideas of his own as he slowly caught up to 7-7 at 4:03 after a series of errors by the Singaporean. The Tunisian eventually claimed the third set after a surprising 13-11 victory.

There was no more fight left in the Tunisian however, as he could not keep up his high level of play, eventually losing out 11-8 just six minutes into the fourth and final set, sending Clarence Chew into the second stage of the competition.

“It feels wonderful to get through (to the next stage). At some point I did think that I might not make it but I tried my best, taking it one ball at a time and kept the momentum going,” quipped Clarence Chew, on his 3-1 (11-7, 11-9, 11-13, 11-8) win over Tunisia.

” The (Tunisian) opponent was very strong, but in the end I tried my best to control the match and won it (in the end).”

Both players will play in the Second Stage that is scheduled to start at 1800hrs Singapore time.

For Singapore fixtures and results, go to our 2010 YOG fixtures page