Despite putting in some solid performances Australia’s Lily Phan and El Salvador’s Luis Mejia have not been able to pull off a victory in the mixed teams table tennis event at Singapore’s Indoor Stadium.

Playing as Intercontinental team 3, Phan and Mejia had to face two European combined sides and France as they went down in all three encounters.

Matching up alongside Portugal’s Maria Xiao, ranked ninth in the singles tournament, Phan struggled to get in the game early as her European opponent got out to 6-0 lead early in the match and eventually took the opening set 11-3.

The Aussie did what she has been doing the whole tournament, stayed strong no matter what position she is in and matched it with Xiao in the next two sets, levelling up at 7-7 in the second, before pushing the Portugese player to 10-10 all in the third, before going down 11-3, 11-8, 12-10.

Mejia matched up against fifth ranked singles player, Belgium’s Emillien Vanrossomme, and despite holding a 10-8 lead in the first, eventually went down in straight sets 12-10, 11-5, 11-5 to give the first match to the Europeans.

The Intercontinental pair couldn’t match the Europeans as they went down again in straight sets, 11-8, 11-7, 11-1.

Phan and teammate Mejia then faced up against one of the six European teams, with Phan taking on Serbia’s Alex Galic.

After going down to Galic in straight sets in the singles, Phan was immediately under the pump as she conceded the first six points of the opening set.

Galic remained strong as she finished the opening set off 11-3, before it was much of the same in the second as the Aussie went down 11-4.

Phan didn’t give up though and was right in the third but she couldn’t quite steal a set from the Serbian.

Mejia faced off with Austrian Stefan Leitgeb as he looked to get the Intercontinental team on the board.
The 16-year-old from El Salvador took an early lead in the first set but the higher ranked Austrian kept composed and wore down Mejia taking the opener 11-7.

Some of Phan’s fighting spirit might have rubbed off on the Mejia as he pushed the Austrian to 16-14 in the second and turning around a late two point deficit to claim the third set 13-11.

It wasn’t enough though as Mejia went down 11-3 in the fourth, sealing the tie for the Europeans before the doubles match.

It was much of the same in the doubles as Phan and Mejia couldn’t hang with the Europeans as they took the tie 3-0, with a straight sets victory 11-5, 11-9, 11-5.

The Intercontinental team again struggled to match another European team, going down 3-0 to France’s Celine Pang and singles bronze medallist Simon Gauzy.

Phan and Mejia only managed two sets above seven points between them as they were outclassed by the higher ranked French.

The Aussie and El Salvadoran will now playoff tomorrow for positions 17-32 in the mixed teams event.