Thailand cause table tennis upset
Thailand provided the first upset of this SEA Games.
Padasak Tanviriyavechakul and Chanakarn Udomsilp beat Singapore's Clarence Chew and Chen Feng 4-3 in a thrilling men's doubles semi-final showdown at the Singapore Indoor Stadium Tuesday afternoon.
Padasak and Chanakarn raced to a 2-0 lead, but were pegged back by Chew and Chen, who came back to win three games in a row.
However, the local pair were unable to sustain the pace, and the Thais won the last two games to edge the tie 4-3 (11-7, 11-8, 5-11, 3-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-4) to advance to the final, where they will meet Singaporean top seeds Gao Ning and Li Hu.
As there is no third-place playoffs, Chew and Chen will collect a bronze medal for their efforts.
Chew, 19, said: "We knew we would be in for a tough fight. We made mistakes and lost the first two games too quickly.
"We were too conservative and didn't handle some points well.
"Overall, considering we are a releatively new pair who started playing together from last year, we did quite well.
"We still have the singles and team events to come, so we have to refocus."
Chen, 21, added: "This is the first time I am taking part in such a big competition so surely there were some nerves, especially in the first two games.
"Although we got better later on, our tactics were not spot on and our play wasn't smooth today anyway.
"It is quite a pity to lose today, but hopefully we will still go on to win all the gold medals on offer in this competition."
Read the full report in our print edition on June 3, 2015.
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