Well-prepared mixed doubles teens progress

In the aftermath of failing to qualify for the Olympics table tennis team events, the Republic's kids showed they are all right, as the teenage mixed doubles pair of Izaac Quek and Zhou Jingyi wrapped up the first day of the US$1.5 million (S$2m) Singapore Smash with a win to progress to the round of 16.

- David Lee

On March 10, the world No. 65 duo beat Hong Kong's Lam Siu Hang and Slovakia's Tatiana Kukulkova 3-0 (11-9, 11-9, 11-1) at the OCBC Arena to set up a meeting against Romania's world No. 10 Ovidiu Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs.

While their opponents are a ragtag unranked combination, the Singaporeans had just a couple of practice sessions together after returning from playing in the French and Portuguese leagues respectively.

Quek, 17, said: "There's the uncertainty as we don't know much about them, but I watched videos of their partnership with other players and studied how they served and received.