SINGAPORE – In the aftermath of failing to qualify for the Olympics table tennis team events, the Republic’s kids showed they are all right, as the teenage mixed doubles pair of Izaac Quek and Zhou Jingyi wrapped up the first day of the US$1.5 million (S$2m) Singapore Smash with a win to progress to the round of 16.

On March 10, the world No. 65 duo beat Hong Kong’s Lam Siu Hang and Slovakia’s Tatiana Kukulkova 3-0 (11-9, 11-9, 11-1) at the OCBC Arena to set up a meeting against Romania’s world No. 10 Ovidiu Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs.