Koen Pang and Izaac Quek surprise China's world number 1 to reach the s-final of the WTT Finals men's doubles

SINGAPORE Having never won a match or match at the prestigious season-ending World Table Tennis (WTT) Finals, they faced China's world No. 1 and defending champions Yuan Licen and Xiang Peng.

Before the match, Izaac Quek joked with his partner Koen Pang and said: Let's try to play one match to improve our result from last year.

The 10th-ranked Singaporeans did that and more as they claimed the biggest title of their career in men's doubles with a stunning 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-9) victory over the Kitakyushu General Gymnasium in Fukuoka, Japan. on November 20 to advance to the final four.

In the semi-finals on November 22, they will face home favorites and sixth-ranked Hiroto Shinozuka and Shunsuke Togami, who also won 3-0 (11-8, 11-6, 11-7) against the No. 3 in the world, Lin Gaoyuan and Lin Shidong, for a place in the final the next day.

Pang, 22, told The Straits Times: It feels great to be able to beat the top seeds and defending champions because we didn't expect this at all.

Our mentality and approach going into this match was to be aggressive from the start, play without pressure and have fun.

Without the weight of expectations, Pang and Quek settled down more quickly as they won the first game without trailing.

Surprisingly, their opponents couldn't claw their way back in the second game, which they lost by the same score as the left-handed Yuan was off-kilter with several uncharacteristic unforced errors on his favored forehand attack.

With victory in sight, the Singaporeans looked eager to close out the match, but the Chinese stepped up their pace and led 6-0 in the third game.

But the underdogs staged a remarkable rally to take seven of the next eight points before completing the sweep in 21 minutes after Yuan's backhand went long.

Quek, 18, said: From the first point we had the feeling that they were quite nervous and not on their A game, so we tried to take advantage of that and play with confidence.

We made some mistakes and were down 0-6 in the third game. But we haven't changed our approach compared to the first two games.

We still tried to attack when we could, put them in the background and we did a very good job of adapting our tactics to their adjustments.

We will try to have the same mentality for the semi-final, we will take it match by match, match by match, try to win one match, play as best as we can and leave no regrets at the table.

Since beginning their partnership in 2022, Pang and Quek have gone from strength to strength as they won gold in the men's doubles at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia.

They also reached the round of 16 and quarter-finals of the 2023 and 2024 Singapore Smash respectively, losing to Chinese defending champions Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin both times.

On October 12, they secured a surprise silver medal at the Asian Men's Doubles Table Tennis Championships, rising to No. 10 in the world rankings and qualifying for the WTT Finals as the seventh highest-ranked partnership among eight eligible pairs.

They became the first native-born Singaporeans to play in the tournament when they lost 3-0 to French brothers Alexis and Felix Lebrun in the first round of the 2023 edition in Doha, Qatar, in January .

National coach Gao Ning said after their victory over the Chinese pair: Koen and Izaac played at a very high level and were able to read their opponents well today.

Their serves, returns and rallies were excellent, and they managed to limit the opponent's attacks.

It is a pleasant surprise for them to record such a convincing victory over formidable rivals.

Powerhouses China had a bad day at the office as five of their seven entries were eliminated at the first hurdle.

There were further shocks when world number two Jeon Ji-hee and Shin Yu-bin of South Korea lost 3-0 (11-5, 11-9, 11-6) to the fifth-ranked Japan's Satsuki Odo and Sakura Yokoi in the quarter-finals, while Germany's Benedikt Duda beat French third seed Felix Lebrun 3-2 (9-11, 11-6, 14-12, 6-11, 11-9) in the last 16 of the men's singles.

Meanwhile, at the Southeast Asian Table Tennis Championships in Thailand, the Singapore women's team of Zeng Jian, Ser Lin Qian, Loy Ming Ying, Tan Zhao Yun and Zhang Wanling defeated Malaysia 3-0 in the semi-finals on November 20 to advance to the November 21 final where they will face the hosts.

The men's team, consisting of Josh Chua, Nicholas Tan, Yang Ze Yi, Ellsworth Le and Jaryl Wong, settled for bronze after losing 3-1 to Thailand in their semi-final.