Commonwealth Games: Silver for Singapore men's table tennis team after final defeat by India

SINGAPORE: Singapore clinched a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games after India beat them to retain their title with a 3-1 victory in the men’s table tennis team final on Tuesday (Aug 2).

At the NEC in Birmingham, England, Izaac Quek Yong and Koen Pang Yew En led Singapore’s charge for the gold against India’s Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in the doubles match, but were defeated 3-0 (11-13, 7-11, 5-11).

Clarence Chew Zhe Yu then levelled the score for Singapore after beating Sharath Kamal Achanta 3-1 (11-7, 12-14, 11-3, 11-9) in his singles match.

Pang attempted to put Singapore ahead in his singles match against Gnanasekaran, but the Indian proved too formidable and Pang succumbed to a 3-1 defeat (10-12, 11-7, 7-11, 4-11).

Chew then tried to replicate his earlier victory, but he was unable to turn things around and eventually lost 0-3 (8-11, 5-11, 6-11) to India’s Desai in their singles match, ending Singapore’s bid for the gold.

India's Sharath Kamal Achanta said: "Last time we had the same amount of pressure. This time we've had good teams around (us) and really Singapore did a fantastic job beating England (in the semi-finals) yesterday.

Achanta also applauded their rivals for their fine performance.

"We didn't expect (Singapore) to play the level what they were playing today, but they put up a fantastic fight and we're really happy that we could step it up and close the match in the way we did it," he said.

England, who were beaten by Singapore in the semi-finals a day earlier, defeated Nigeria 3-0 to win the bronze medal.