Story by Tessa Cho/Red Sports

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Tessa Ong of NUS (photo), along with her partner Eunice Chew, beat their SMU opponents 9–8 (7–5). The win help set up an all-NUS women’s doubles final. (Photo 1 © Joseph Lee/Red Sports)

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Nanyang Technological University, Thursday, September 5, 2013 — Tessa Ong and Eunice Chew of National University of Singapore (NUS) defeated Grace Pang and Sara Tang of Singapore Management University (SMU) 9–8 (7–5) after a gruelling one-and-a-half-hour match to qualify for the tennis doubles final at the 2013 Singapore University Games (SUniG).

“It was intense,” said Tessa. NUS initially had a 7–2 lead but became too comfortable, giving their opponents the opportunity to turn the tables.

SMU stepped up their game and eventually levelled the score. “We had a lot of unforced errors and the lights switching off added to the drama. But we played well and it was a good match and we are glad that it’s over,” said Eunice.

Despite trailing, the SMU pair, of Grace Pang and Sara Tang managed to keep their cool to come back. “We had a rough start but thankfully started to play our own game later on,” said Grace, who is also the captain of the SMU women tennis team. “We fought hard and managed to fight back after being 7–1 down, catching up all the way to a tie-break at 8-all,” added Sara. The SMU pair were satisfied with their game having surpassed their expectations for the match.

Tessa and Eunice will now face teammates Cheryl Fang and Leong Jia Li in the women’s doubles final. “It’s a dream final and it’ll be much more relaxing (against the other NUS team) because we know that NUS wins nonetheless,” said Tessa.

Two SMU pairs will face each other for third place.

The women’s doubles final will take place on Monday, September 9, at Nanyang Technological University.