TABLE TENNIS: The Youth Olympics has drawn to a close for Aussie table tennis players Vy Bui and Dominic Huang after failing to advance in their mixed team campaign.

The pair did not go down without a fight putting in a few tough bouts against their world-class opponents, eventually finishing equal 25th in the teams at the Wutaishan Gymnasium in Nanjing.

In their final match on Friday, Bui, 18, and Huang, 16, were able to push their Egyptian opponents to their limit making for a thrilling 2-1 fight to the finish in Egypt’s favour.

Huang, from Victoria, won Australia’s first match of the tournament against Aly Ghallab, winning 3-2 and showing just how much he had learnt from competing at the Youth Olympic Games.

“I proved that to myself and everyone here that I can challenge here,” Huang said.

“I played the best that I have at the whole event. He was the closest player to my standard that I have played here, so I knew I had a chance to win.

I had to fight hard! Mentally I was very strong, so I am so excited and proud to have won the first and only match for Australia.”

Bui, from South Australia, also put in a solid performance, winning a game against Alaa Saad, an improvement on her 3-0 loss to her in the singles earlier in the week.

“I put a lot of effort into this game, and I am very happy with the way I played,” Bui said.

“ I put a lot of spin and thought into my shots, which I have not done in my other games. I was eager to win the match, but unfortunately she was to good.”

In the doubles the pair went down 3-1.

Jens Lang, Australian Table Tennis coach, says today’s match showed the potential both athletes have.

“It would have been nice to finish with a win, but at least it was our best performance of the tournament,” he said.

“ It took us a little time to adjust to this level, but I am proud of the way that we improved. Every match was against higher ranked teams, which was tough [and] I am glad Dom got his win, it will do a lot for his confidence in the future.

This has been a good preparation for the World Juniors, so hopefully we can raise our level again there.”

To get to that stage the Aussie duo had three prior matches in the team event.

Coming up against the Czech Republic in the first round the pair lost 3-0 but Bui, from South Australia, managed to win her first game of the meet against Kristyna Stefcova.

“I minimized a lot of errors and played more aggressive,” she said.

“I won my first game of the tournament which was great. The problem was that I then lost the next one 11-1! The reason for this was that my opponent started to play short which upset my rhythm, and put my timing out.”

In the next match against Singapore it was Huang who really stepped up.

The Victorian challenged Jing Yuan Yin, drawing the match out to five games, eventually losing 3-2.

“It was the first game where I really had the chance to win, it was close and I played superb and I [was] happy with my performance,” Huang said.

“I put in my 110% and I think he was just too good but at the end of the day I am still happy with myself and the way I played.”

Unfortunately the Aussies still went down 3-0 to Singapore after Bui lost 3-0 to Herng Hwee Yee and the pair lost 3-1 in the doubles.

The final match of the mixed team group stage had Australia come face to face with an amalgamated European team consisting of Diogo Chen from Portugal and Adina Diaconu from Romania.

With Chen finishing ninth in the men’s singles tournament and Diaconu finishing fifth in the women’s, the Europe 1 team was always going to be a force to be reckoned with.

In the end, Bui and Huang went down in straight sets across the board losing 3-0 and propelling themselves into the consolation draw for a second time at the Games.

Nevertheless in true Australian spirit Bui and Huang found positives out of their performance.

“I didn't play well; I just couldn't get it right. He is a very high ranked player. Certainly someone that I can look up too and try ago emulate,” Huang said.

“I have learned here at the YOG that I need to go for more shots which are risky. This is the most important thing to do as it can win me more games. At the moment I am too passive.”

“I did well, but she is a very good player. I controlled my spin better. I mixed up my game and placed the ball better. I had much less unforced errors which is a good sign for me,” Bui said.

Despite their overall result, both athletes say they have gained a lot more confidence in their own abilities moving forward.

“From some of the matches I can tell that I am playing much better and that I have a lot of potential to beat them [my opponents] so it motivates me to train harder although I do train hard, I can take on this trip and learn from the experience and learn from all the errors I have done,” Bui said.

“It motivates me to try and go for Rio.”

“This experience has been amazing and I will always remember it,” Huang said.

“I think I will train very hard for the Olympics, I think that will be my next main goal, my next dream, my next aspiration.”

Laura Judd
Olympics.com.au
@AUSOlympicTeam