ZENG TAMES DEBUT JITTERS

Singaporean ekes out 4-3 win to advance but compatriots Zhou and Quek are out

- David Lee

As much as she psyched herself up for her Olympic debut, the significance of the occasion still got to Singapore’s top table tennis player Zeng Jian.

However, when it came to the crunch in front of a capacity 6,650 crowd – which included Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam – at the South Paris Arena 4, the world No. 52 showed her mettle to beat Croatia’s 73rd-ranked Ivana Malobabic 4-3 (11-5, 11-3, 11-13, 11-6, 9-11, 13-15, 11-5) in the women’s singles’ round of 64.

Zeng told The Straits Times: “I tried to prepare myself as best as I could, but I was still super nervous when I stepped out into the Olympic arena with a full crowd. My mind went blank, and I couldn’t play according to plan because my hands and body felt stiff.

“At the start, we were both nervous and trying to find our rhythm, and my opponent’s shot quality improved after the second game which helped her find a way back in the match.

“I really wanted to end the match in the sixth game and while I didn’t accomplish that, I found some breakthroughs which helped me in the decider. In the last game, I felt I had to go for broke because if I remained conservative, I wouldn’t be able to win.”