Resilient Quek Goes Down Fighting

He loses to world No. 16 Kallberg in his S'pore Smash opener but wins fans over

- Deepanraj Ganesan

Battling valiantly against world No. 16 Anton Kallberg, Singapore's Izaac Quek fought tooth and nail before his challenge unravelled in a 3-1 (11-9, 4-11, 11-8, 11-7) defeat in the men's singles round of 64 at the Singapore Smash on Feb 2.

Even when it was clear that Kallberg had the upperhand, world No. 83 Quek held on defiantly and gave the crowd at the OCBC Arena's Infinity Arena some moments to cheer about, momentarily rattling the 27-year-old Swede by clinching the second game and winning a rally that was played at blinding speed in the last game.

Constant shouts of "jiayou" (come on in Mandarin) were heard from about 500 spectators as they backed Quek to claim another scalp. Even though that did not happen, several fans sought autographs and wefies with the 18-year-old after the match, as he had won their hearts.

In front of his juniors, he had just given a live demonstration of what it means to never give up.

Lin Jia'an, who was one of over 100 young fans seated just behind Quek, said: "Even if he lost, I think he taught all of us an important lesson in fighting till the end. Even though he was losing, he kept going and kept fighting. I think the main (lesson) today is that to be a national team player, you must be resilient."