Men’s, women’s table tennis teams win, lose in qualifying rounds

Team play began on Thursday with Canada’s women’s and men’s teams both playing qualifying two qualifying round matches apiece at Scotstoun Sports Complex.

The women’s team of Betty Guo (Edmonton, Alta.), Anqi Luo (Mississauga, Ont.) and Mo Zhang (Vancouver, B.C.), easily defeated Jamaica 3-0 (3:0, 3:0, 3:0) in the morning. In the afternoon they had a tougher go of it, but pushed Malaysia to five matches before losing 3-2 (3:2, 0:3, 0:3, 3:2, 1:3).

The women’s team’s next match will be Friday July 25 at 9:30 a.m. vs. Papua New Guinea. They then have the potential to play at Vanuatu at 16:00 in the first round, but this will be subject to results on Friday morning.

Canada’s men’s team of Andre Ho (Richmond, B.C.), Pierre-Luc Thériault (Rimouski, Que.) and Eugene Zhen Wang (Ottawa, Ont.) defeated Tanzania 3-0 (3:0, 3:0, 3:0) in their first contest of the day.

Then at a late night match in front of a boisterous home crowd, the men battled with Scotland point-for-point in a three-hour contest finally won by Scotland 3-1 (3-0, 1-3, 3-2, 3-2).

“I wish we had played better,” said Thériault. “We were leading and lost a little bit of focus. It was great to play in front of so many people watching.”

The men’s next match will be Friday July 25 at 12:50 vs. Uganda. They will also play at 16:00 on Friday - the opponent will be determined by results Friday morning.