Izaac Quek becomes first local-born Singapore player to join China Table Tennis Super League, Singapore News
And Izaac Quek is hoping his stint with Anhui Zhongcheng will help take his game to the next level after becoming the first local-born Singapore player to join the CTTSL.
He will follow in the footsteps of China-born Singaporeans such as Feng Tianwei and current national men's team coach Gao Ning to play in the prestigious tournament, the standard of which is seen by some as comparable to the world championships.
While his club comprise relatively unheralded players such as 34th-ranked Wen Ruibo, Ning Xiankun (133rd) and Niu Guankai (175th), Quek will get the chance to pit his skills against the world's top two players Lin Shidong and Wang Chuqin, as well as Olympic champions such as Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin, who no longer compete on the World Table Tennis circuit.
The 19-year-old, who has played in leagues in India, France and Spain, told The Straits Times: "This is the best league in the world and not everyone gets to play in it, so I want to make full use of this stint to learn as much as I can from the best players in the world.
"Wen is 18 and I kept in touch with him after previous competitions, and I'm also looking forward to test myself against Fan, whom I have not played against. I've heard there will be two team matches in a day for four days in a row, so I have to get myself physically ready for this challenge."
Quek missed the June 6-10 first stage of the competition in Hebei as he was helping Dabang Delhi to a top-four finish in India's Ultimate Table Tennis from May 29 to June 15. He will make his CTTSL debut in the July 25-28 second stage in Fujian before the Aug 29-Sept 1 third stage in Xinjiang.
Anhui Zhongcheng are currently sixth out of nine teams, with the top four sides advancing to the championship play-offs.
Eddy Tay, Singapore Table Tennis Association senior manager for high performance, shared that the opportunity arose from their relationship with Anhui Zhongcheng, who provided sparring partners for the STTA.
He added: "While their club president was here with the players, we talked about whether it would be possible for them to recruit Izaac. They felt that at his age, Izaac has potential and room for growth, and hope that his youth and competitiveness will help them.
"We have made a request for him to play as much as possible as we don't want to send him there just to sit on the bench. We hope he can gain as much experience as possible training with and playing against the Chinese."
Singapore's first Under-15 boys world No. 1 in 2021, Quek had enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past few years, as he claimed notable scalps such as India's Commonwealth Games champion Sharath Kamal and Sweden's 2019 world championships silver medallist Mattias Falck en route to a career-high men's singles ranking of 55th in November 2023.
He also teamed up with Koen Pang to achieve some outstanding results in the men's doubles, as they stunned China's then world No. 1 Yuan Licen and Xiang Peng to reach the last four at the WTT Finals in 2024, the year they also won silver at the Asian championships. In January, they rose to fifth in the world.
However, Quek's ranking has slipped to 106th in the men's singles and 12th in the men's doubles as he started a business diploma course at Ngee Ann Polytechnic after the 2024 Olympics.
But both the STTA and the player are not unduly worried.
"There are mitigating factors for the dip as he is just making the transition to polytechnic and has not played in as many competitions as before," Tay said.
"Despite recent losses, including narrow defeats at the world championships, we feel Izaac has generally done well and has improved in terms of his consistency and overall game play in both the singles and doubles."
Tay said: "We will need to strategise in terms of his tournament plan. The players' world ranking is not of such a big concern now as it would be in 2027 before the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. So we are devoting more time to training, and the overseas stints will have great value for his development."
For his part, Quek has made adjustments to his game to take fewer risks and try to be stronger in rallies. He has also increased the duration of each of his endurance exercises from 10 to 15 minutes in his 12 training sessions across each week.
He said: "I was on a honeymoon period in 2023 when many players didn't know much about me, and things were going well for me and I had some wins in big tournaments like the Singapore Smash.
"This year, I still had some good wins against strong opponents, such as China's top-30 player Chen Yuanyu at the 2025 Asian Cup group stage, but they were not in such tournaments with a lot of ranking points.
"I feel my game is stronger now and I'm more experienced, so I'm not focusing on the ranking now. I just need to focus on my game and naturally, the ranking will come."
Before his CTTSL debut, Quek will spearhead a group of 10 Singaporeans competing at the June 26 -July 2 Asian Youth Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
He said: "My focus will firstly be on motivating the younger ones to get some wins with me in the team event first, before my singles event later.
"My game is good enough for this level and there's no player there that I think I have no chance to beat, and I think we have good players in our team too."
[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/DKGSagphlI-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link[/embed]
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- Straits Times
Villa sign forward Guessand from Nice
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox France-born Ivory Coast forward Evann Guessand has joined Aston Villa from Ligue 1 side Nice, the Premier League club said on Friday. Villa did not disclose the duration of the 24-year-old's contract or the transfer fee, but media reports said it was a five-year deal worth 35 million euros ($40.71 million). Guessand graduated from Nice's youth system and made his senior debut in 2020. He went on loan to Swiss club Lausanne-Sport and French side Nantes before having his best season yet in 2024-25, scoring 12 goals in Ligue 1 as Nice finished fourth. He also scored his first goal for Ivory Coast in March in a 1-0 win over Morocco in the World Cup qualifiers. "When I heard (Villa) wanted me, I didn't think twice. I'm ready to give my all," Guessand said in a video posted on social media by the English club. Villa, who finished sixth last season, begin their league campaign with a home game against Newcastle United on August 16. REUTERS
