By Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports.

isabelle li table tennis

After shining at the Asian Youth Games, Isabelle Li has now brought home the U15 girls’ singles bronze medal to add on to her collection. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports file photo)

Jaipur, India, Sunday, July 26, 2009 - Their loss in the team event did not stop Singapore’s youth paddlers Isabelle Li, Pang Xue Jie and Lim Jie Yan from going all out for glory at the recently concluded 15th Asian Junior Table Tennis Championship. Isabelle achieved a bronze medal in the Cadet (U-15) Girls Singles while Xue Jie and Jie Yan took bronze in the Junior (U-18) Boys Doubles event.

Isabelle defeated home crowd favourite Bhandarkar Mallika 4-1 (13-11, 12-10, 11-9, 7-11, 12-10) in the quarter-finals to set up a semi-final match up with Japan’s Maeda Miyu where our local girl brought the match into a thrilling 7-set encounter.

Leading by three sets to two, Isabelle, who is ranked one rung below Maeda, had to settle for the bronze when Maeda took the remaining two sets, and the game 4-3 (4-11, 11-3, 11-8, 5-11, 0-11, 11-6, 11-6)

The girls’ singles was eventually won by world number one Yang Ha Eun from South Korea, who beat Maeda Miyu 4-2.

The Junior Boys Doubles team of Pang Xue Jie and Lim Jie Yan dispatched Naseem Mohamed Zeest and Shafeen Ibrahim from the Maldives 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 11-3) to meet Iran’s Miralmasi Amin and Alamiyan Daronkonlae in the quarter-finals.

Having lost to the Iranians in the team event, the boys exacted their revenge when, tied at two sets a piece, Xue Jie and Jie Yan snatched the last set to win the game 3-2 (10-12, 11-9, 11-8, 11-13, 11-4).

But the biggest scalp which they earned was definitely that of Japan’s Ueda Jin and Niwa Koki. Thrashed by the Japanese team in the team event, the Singapore duo were certainly not the favourites in the game.

Niwa, ranked number nine and Ueda, number 14, were upset by the Singapore pair 3-2 (13-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-9, 11-7) who came back from a set down to steal the game from the Japanese.

However, their dream run was ended when they dropped to South Korea’s Kim Min Seok and Seo Jung Hwa 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-9) in the semi-final.

Nevertheless, it was still a sweet moment for them as they joined Isabelle in bringing home a bronze for Singapore.