Koen Pang, Izaac Quek stun China’s world No. 1 pair to reach WTT finals
They had never won a match, nor a game, at the prestigious season-ending World Table Tennis (WTT) Finals, and they were up against China’s world No. 1 and defending champions Yuan Licen and Xiang Peng in the first round.
Before the match, Izaac Quek joked with his partner Koen Pang, saying: “Let’s try to get one game to improve on our result last year.”
The 10th-ranked Singaporeans did that and more, as they claimed the biggest scalp of their men’s doubles career with a stunning 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-9) win at the Kitakyushu General Gymnasium in Fukuoka, Japan on Nov 20 to advance to the semi-finals.
In the final four on Nov 22, they will face China’s third-ranked Lin Gaoyuan and Lin Shidong or home favourites Hiroto Shinozuka and Shunsuke Togami for a place in the final a day later.
Pang, 22, told The Straits Times: “It feels great to be able to take down the top seeds and defending champions as we didn’t expect this at all. Our mentality and approach going into this game was to be aggressive from the start, play without pressure and have fun.
“We wanted to make the points as close as possible and try to pull ahead whenever we had the chance and we are happy we managed to execute the strategy well.”
Without the weight of expectations, Pang and Quek settled down quicker as they took down the first game without trailing.
Surprisingly, their opponents could not work their way back in the second game which they lost by the same score as left-hander Yuan was off-colour with several uncharacteristic unforced errors on his preferred forehand attack.
With the win in sight, the Singaporeans seemed anxious to close out the win, only for the Chinese to step up their tempo and lead 6-0 in the third game. But the underdogs staged a remarkable rally to reel in seven of the next eight points before completing the sweep in 21 minutes after Yuan’s backhand went long.
Quek said: “From the first point, we felt they were quite nervous and were not on their ‘A’ game, so we tried to take advantage of that and play confidently. We controlled the first three balls quite well and we managed to play our own game.
“They made some changes, while we made some errors and trailed 0-6 in the third game. But we didn’t change our approach from the first two games. We still tried to attack when we could, put them on the back foot and we did very well to change our tactics according to their adaptations.
“We will try to have the same mentality for the semi-final – take it match by match, game by game, try to get one game, play as best as we can and leave no regrets at the table.”
Since they began their partnership in 2022, Pang and Quek have grown from strength to strength, as they won the men’s doubles gold at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia.
They also reached the round of 16 and quarter-finals of the 2023 and 2024 Singapore Smash respectively, losing to China’s defending champions Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin on both occasions.
On Oct 12, they secured a surprise Asian Table Tennis Championships men’s doubles silver medal and rose to a career-high world No. 10 and qualified for the WTT Finals as the seventh highest-ranked partnership among eight eligible pairs.
They were the first local-born Singaporeans to feature in the tournament when they lost 3-0 to French brothers Alexis and Felix Lebrun in the first round of the 2023 edition in Doha, Qatar, in January.
After the latest upset, national men’s coach Gao Ning said: “Koen and Izaac played to a very high level and were able to read their opponents very well today. Their service, returns and rallies were excellent, and they managed to restrict the opponents’ attacks. It is a pleasant surprise for them to record such a convincing win over formidable rivals.”
There was also an upset in the women’s doubles as top seeds and world No. 2 Jeon Ji-hee and Shin Yu-bin of South Korea lost 11-5, 11-9, 11-6 to Japan’s fifth-ranked Satsuki Odo and Sakura Yodoi.
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