S'pore paddlers lose to Portugal

The men's national table tennis team lost 0-3 in their Group C tie against world No. 6 Portugal at the World Team Table Tennis Championships at the Malawati Stadium on Monday (Feb 29) evening.

The team's top paddler Gao Ning missed today's ties against Japan and Portugal due to an ankle injury, and men's national coach Liu Jiayi elected to field an all-local side of Pang Xue Jie, Clarence Chew and Ethan Poh against the 2014 European team champions.

Pang, who earlier scored the day's upset win against Japan's world No. 14 Koki Niwa earlier on Monday, played the first singles against world No. 11 Marcos Freitas, but could not repeat his heroics and fell in straight sets 7-11, 3-11, 4-11.

Chew had more fight in him in the second singles against world No. 26 Tiago Apolonia, but the gulf in standards between Chew, ranked 176 in the world, and his opponent was too wide, as Chew lost 11-13, 7-11, 6-11.

Joao Monteiro confirmed the win for the Europeans in the third singles, with his 11-4, 11-3, 12-10 win over 17-year-old Ethan Poh, with Yang Zi rested for this tie.

Singapore are still winless in Group C after three ties.