Fathimath Dheema Ali, the first Maldivian athlete to qualify for the Olympics through the South Asian Qualifiers, faced defeat in today's preliminary round match against Katarzyna Wegrzyn from Poland.
Fathimath Dheema Ali, the first Maldivian athlete to qualify for the Olympics through the South Asian Qualifiers, faced defeat in today's preliminary round match against Katarzyna Wegrzyn from Poland.
Today's match was played to determine players who will go on to join the Olympics Table Tennis Group Stage. With today's loss, Dheema has now lost that opportunity.
Wegrzyn, 23, won the match with four games. Dheema, 16, was not able to keep up with Wegrzyn in the first three games, who won the three matches easily.
Dheema did not score beyond 5 points in each of these three sets. She lost the first two sets with 5-11, 5-11.
In the third set Dheema only managed to score 2 points.
However, she rallied in the fourth set, presenting a competitive challenge to Wegrzyn, with her taking a time-out.
While the set came close to ending with a 9-9 tie, Dheema's ball hit the net and Wegrzyn scored a point. With the following two points, the set was also won by Wegrzyn at 8-11.
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