Success came the way of Hong Kong on the first day of play, Sunday 17^th August, in the table tennis events at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

Both Hung Ka Tak and Doo Hoi Kem remained unbeaten.

Doo Hoi Kem, the top seed, emerged successful as predicted; she was never troubled beating Venezuela’s Gremlis Arvelo (11-2, 11-9, 11-5) and the Czech Republic’s Kristyna Stefcova )11-2, 11-3, 11-8).

She remains the one unbeaten player in the group; in the remaining matches Uganda’s Florence Seera was beaten by Krisryna Stefcova (11-4, 11-9, 11-3) and by Gremlis Arvelo (11-7, 11-9, 11-2).

Wins as predicted for Doo Hoi Kem but not for Hung Ka Tak; he accounted Croatia’s Tomislav Pucar, the no.8 seed (5-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 11-8), in his concluding match of the day, having earlier in the proceedings accounted for Qatar’s Abdulrahman Al-Naggar (11-7, 11-3, 11-7).

In a similar manner to Doo Hoi Kem, Hung Ka Tak ended the day as the one unbeaten player in the group.

At the start of the day, Tomislav Pucar had beaten Switzerland’s Elia Schmid (15-13, 9-11, 14-12, 11-8); whilst later in the day Elia Schmid had accounted for Abdulrahman Al-Naggar (12-10, 15-13, 11-8).

Players finishing in first and second places in each group progress to the main draw. Each player has one match to complete in the first phase which concludes in the first session of play on Monday 18^th August.

The first round matches in the knock-out stage commence later in the day.

Article by: Ian Marshall

Photo by: HKTTA