Malaysia's up-and-coming table tennis player Lee Xin Ni did the country proud as she helped the 2019 World Hopes Team achieve a runners-up finish at the 2019 ITTF World Cadet Challenge in Wladyslawowo, Poland.
The 13-year-old, who was selected by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) to be a member of the multi-national girls' team, secured key wins en route to the final.
She beat Team Latin America's Divina Ding 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 11-8) in a group match, contributing to her team's 4-1 overall victory to win Group 1 and seal a place in the semi-finals.
Facing host nation Poland in the semis, Lee rose to the challenge and scored an important 3-2 win (8-11, 12-10, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9) against Ilona Sztwiertnia for her side to edge ahead and eventually bag a 3-1 overall victory to set up a rematch against Team Europe.
They had beaten the Europeans 3-2 in their opening group match — one of the defeats were by Lee in her match against Hana Arapovic.
In the final, she did not participate as Team Hopes, whose other members were Ser Li Qian (Singapore), Sophie Earley (Ireland) and Emily Tan (USA), failed to repeat their earlier feat and lost 0-3.
Despite her not playing in the finals, Table Tennis Association of Malaysia (TTAM) vice-president Dr. Chin Kuen Liang was happy with her contributions and performances.
"Although Xin Ni did not get to play in the finals, she has shown exemplary and commendable attitude and progress.
"There's always a tremendous pressure playing in the third singles to bring in the winning point and Xin Ni did it, demonstrating much maturity and skills in the two important matches.
"We are pleased that the TTAM's plan to have smooth succession of players to become podium abled athletes of world standing is moving in the right direction," he said.
Lee's next involvements at the 2019 ITTF World Cadet Challenge are in the girls' singles, where she is grouped together with Goda Hana (Egypt), Lee Yeonhui (South Korea) and Fiona Nie (Canada), as well as the girls' doubles, partnering Ser to take on United States pair Joanna Sung and Angie Tan in the first round.
Both individual events are scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
(Picture: Flickr/ITTFWorld)
Seng Foo Lee
Tue Oct 29 2019
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