Lily Phan is set to take to the courts of Singapore 2010 as she carries Australia’s hopes in the Youth Olympics table tennis competition.

Phan, Australia’s only table tennis representative, will begin her Youth Olympics campaign on August 21 as she tests herself against the best up and coming table tennis stars at Singapore 2010.

Phan has been grouped with Egypt’s Dina Meshref, Slovenia’s Alex Galic and Croatia’s Mateja Jeger and will need to be ranked in the top two players in her group to move through to the last 16.

The 15 year old had to qualify through the international qualification tournament, after her number one seeding couldn’t carry her through the Oceania qualification.

With some of the world’s premier youth table tennis players descending on Singapore, Coach Brett Clarke knows Lily has a fight on her hands.

“The competition is really tough,” Clarke said.

“Table tennis is a massive sport around the world we always understand that it is tough to get near the medals. Lily will definitely be giving it her best, she is a good fighter, but it would be really tough to get in the top few.”

Over the opening days of the Youth Olympics Phan, along with the rest of the 32 strong competition, has taken part in a training camp that has helped her get the best preparation possible for one of her toughest competitions to date.

“Training has been going as it could have been,” Clarke said.

“I think Lily is playing, at the moment, as well as she can play so that is good news.”

Phan will face a stern test from the outset as she looks to get off to a good start against her Egyptian opponent, Dina Meshref.

“She (Meshref) is a hard opponent and is ranked a lot higher than Lily,” Clarke added.

“She does play a style that will suit Lily, so we’re fairly optimistic Lily might perform well there.”

The singles table tennis competition is being held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium between August 21-23.  

Matt Bartolo
AOC