Singaporean Izaac Quek, 18, lost his debut match in the Olympic Games but put up a strong fight against the higher-ranked opponent.
He was up against Slovenia's Darko Jorgic, who has a world ranking of 18th on the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) list.
Quek is ranked 83rd on the same list.
Put up a tough fight
Quek won the first game at 11-8, taking a five-point lead against Jorgic at one point.
After losing the second game, Quek also lost the third and fourth games — but by increasingly narrow margins.
Screenshot from Olympics official website
With his opponent one game away from victory, Quek remained undeterred, taking the fifth match with an eight-point difference.
Screenshot from Olympics official website
Jorgic put up a strong showing for the sixth match, with Quek down to a six-point deficit.
Screenshot from Olympics official website
The game soon entered match point, but as Quek scored consecutively to close up the gap, Jorgic called for a timeout.
Screenshot from Olympics official website
Jorgic took the point after the timeout, along with Quek's chances of advancing to the next round.
Qualifying for Olympics was dream come true
In a May 11 post, Quek shared that his "biggest goal" has been to represent Singapore at the Olympics since he started playing table tennis at the age of seven.
He wrote: "Being overseas almost 75% over the past 1.5 years, there were countless amounts of tiring days but i’m just happy I didn’t give up."
Last year, he won three gold medals at his first South East Asian (SEA) Games.
Top photos from Izaac Quek's Instagram & Team Singapore
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