Commonwealth Games 2018
Both the Men’s team and the Women’s team lost in the Quarter Finals; the Men’s team against Singapore, the women against England.
CANADA – SINGAPORE 2-3
After a 3-0 win against Guyana, Canada faced Singapore, ranked 22nd in the ITTF World Team Ranking. Marko Medjugorac got the team off to a good start winning against Singapore’s Xue Jie Pang, 12-10 in the fifth. A good win for Marko against an internationally experienced player, ranked 100 WR positions higher than the Canadian.
All eyes were now on Eugene Wang – he had recorded wins against Gao Ning – Singapore’s #1 – before. But, it was not to be; Wang, who had been struggling with injuries throughout the fall did not find his usual form and lost 0-3.
In the doubles match Medjugorac/Bernadet kept it close, but could not take the lead in the match.
Eugene then had no issues with Singapore’s #3 Shao Feng Poh and evened the match at 2-2.
Class and experience were too much for Antoine Bernadet as he had to concede 0-3 to Gao Ning, ending the team competition for Canada.
CANADA – ENGLAND
The Canadian women started out with a preventable loss against Australia. Both Alicia Coté and Mo Zhang lost singles matches at the closest margin possible; as the tournament progressed, a win would have presented them a path to the semis. With a Round Robin loss, the Quarter Finals opponent was England.
Mo opened the match in convincing fashion putting Team Canada ahead with a win over Kelly Sibley. In match #2, Alicia Coté met club colleague Tin Tin Ho against whom she had recorded a win less than a month ago. “Down Under” Ho prevailed in a tightly fought 5-game match, which charted the course for the match. Justina Yeung and Alicia put up a good fight in doubles but eventually had to concede 3-2.
Justina then had to acknowledge Tin Tin Ho’s superiority which ended the Canadians’ run.
Doubles and Mixed Doubles brought similar results with the mixed and women’s pairs making it to the Quarter Finals; the men had to exit in the Round of 16.
SINGLES
In Singles, both Eugene Wang and Mo Zhang were seen in contention for a medal. Because of his injuries, Eugene had not played in international competitions; this meant he probably was not as ‘sharp’ as he usually is, but also his ranking had suffered – he went from top 50 to below 200. This, in turn, meant that he would face stronger opposition, i.e, a seeded player earlier in the competition. That seeded player was Paul Drinkhall, England’s ‘scrapper’ and #1 who has seen considerable success on the international stage in recent years.
“I like his style, I play well against him,” Eugene commented before the tournament. And, he confirmed his comments by defeating the Englishman by a score of 4-2.
In the Quarter Finals it was Gao Ning, again. In game 1, Eugene had a slow start. Behind 1-6, he mounted a brave come back to win game 1, 12-10. But then it was all Gao Ning and the end of Eugene Wang’s dream of a Commonwealth Games medal.
Mo Zhang, on the other hand has been ‘all business’ so far. England’s #3, Denise Payet got all but 20 points in 4 games in the Round of 16; Australia’s #1 Jiang Fang Lay fared even worse; the experienced Aussie got a total of 15 points in 4 games (11-2, 11-2, 11-5, 11-6)
Next up will be a steeper challenge – Yu Mengyu of Singapore. Tougher than Mo’s previous opponents, but not impossible – Mo won against Yu at the Commonwealth Championships Finals in Delhi.
After two tough losses, Canada's best performance came from Mo Zhang who lost the Bronze medal match against World #4 Feng Tianwei (SGP) in a thrilling 6 game contest.
"The chance was there, but in the end Feng Tianwei proved a notch too strong," commented women's national team coach Yongjiang Liu.
For all results and to follow Mo’s match, please go to