There was an air of disappointment among players representing Malta in table tennis competitions yesterday as none of them made it to the semi-finals of the singles competition.

The news that Luxembourg’s top player Ni Xia Lian was not among the participants had raised hopes that Viktoria Lucenkova could become a serious contender for the gold medal.

However, the lanky Slovakia-born player looked to be suffering badly from the effects of four successive days of competition after conceding a surprise 3-1 defeat to Cyprus player Louiza Koure in the group stage.

Lucenkova then saw off Iceland’s Eva Josteisdottir to finish second and proceed to the knock-out stages where she faced the formidable Sarah De Nutte.

The Luxembourg player proved too strong for Lucenkova on the day and won 3-0.

In her group matches, De Nutte had beaten young Jessica Pace who hit back boldly and booked a place in the quarter-finals after seeing off Gloria Moretti 3-0.

However, in the last eight, Pace was eliminated by Koure in straight sets.

More woes awaited the Maltese table tennis fraternity as in the men’s singles both Simon Gerada and Daniel Bajada failed to progress from the preliminary round.

Gerada suffered back-to-back 3-0 defeats to Gilles Michely, of Luxembourg, and Monaco’s Anthony Perretti.

Bajada also lost his two group matches against Marios Yiangou, of Cyprus, and Montenegro’s Viktor Rogic with the identical 3-0 scoreline.

The table tennis players will be returning home tomorrow with a modest haul of two silver and two bronze medals.