Singapore’s women’s table tennis team qualified for the knockout stages of the World Team Table Tennis Championships after beating Serbia 3-1 earlier this morning.

Zhou Jingyi once again started things off for Singapore, and facing Serbia’s best player in Sabina Surjan, the 18-year-old put on a gritty showing but was unable to overcome her Serbian counterpart, eventually losing in straight sets, 8-11, 8-11, 7-11

Zeng Jian, despite losing the first set, kept her cool to win in the next three sets to defeat Izabela Lupulesku 9-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-3, levelling the tie at 1-1.

Wong Xin Ru clinched Singapore’s second point when she beat Andrea Todorovic in a hard-fought match, winning in straight sets, 11-8, 14-12, 11-9.

In the penultimate match, Zeng once again delivered, prevailing 11-5, 14-12, 12-14, 11-4 over Surjan.

Jing Junhong, National Women’s Head Coach said, “Today was a hard-fought victory, and I think our players did well overall. We achieved our goal of qualifying from the group stage, and we will continue to do our best in the knockout stages.”

Zeng added, “After we fell behind, I was feeling nervous but I told myself if I could win my match, then our team would still stand a chance of winning. I was feeling confident, and I am pleased to have managed to contribute to the win today.”