THE Philippines’ Rose Jean Fadol kept her Olympic hopes alive following a 11-4, 11-2, 11-6, 11-8 conquest of Indonesia’s Siti Aminah in the women’s singles of the ITTF-Asian table tennis qualifiers Thursday at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena in Doha, Qatar.
Fadol, who made it to the semifinals in the World Singles Qualification Tournament earlier this week, rebounded from a 5-11, 11-2, 7-11, 11-9, 5-11, 11-9, 9-11 loss to Jannah Romero in an all-Philippine showdown.
The country’s top-ranked player, Romero failed to sustain the momentum of her win over Fadol after a 8-11, 6-11, 8-11, 4-11 defeat from the hands of 2019 Southeast Asian Games women’s doubles gold medalist and world no. 87 Orawan Paranang of Thailand.
Paranang, who opened her campaign with a 11-5, 11-3, 11-5, 11-9 win over Aminah, is unbeaten in two matches.
Both sporting 1-1 records, Fadol and Romero need to hurdle their final assignments and hope for the best in the tiebreaker to assure that a Filipina will nail the lone Southeast Asian spot in the coronavirus-stalled Tokyo Games.
Fadol will face Paranang, while Romero takes on winless Aminah.
The Filipinas are looking to continue the legacy of the late Ian Lariba, who qualified in the 2016 Rio Olympics after winning the ITTF-Asian table tennis qualifiers in Hong Kong.
In the men’s singles, 2018 Youth Olympian Jann Nayre bowed to 2019 SEA Games gold medalist Pang Yew En Koen of Singapore, 9-11, 11-7, 10-12, 10-12, 11-8, 7-11.
Former UAAP MVP John Russel Misal also dropped his opening match to 2019 SEA Games men’s singles silver medalist Clarence Chew of Singapore, 3-11, 10-12, 11-8, 5-11, 5-11.
Misal later stayed in the hunt for an Olympic berth following a 11-5, 9-11, 6-11, 13-11, 11-3, 11-9 come-from-behind win over Indonesia’s Deepash Bhagwani.
Misal hopes to advance in the semifinals against 2019 SEA Games men’s singles bronze medalist Padasak Tanviriyavechakul of Thailand.
Nayre, for his part, hopes to stave off elimination against Indonesia’s Rafanel Niman.
Meanwhile, Fadol and Nayre booted out early in the mixed doubles’ play after losing to Kazakhstan’s Kirill Gerassimenko and Anastassiya Lavrova, 14-12, 7-11, 7-11, 9-11, 7-11.
