The U.S. Men’s National Team missed out on reaching the WSF World Team Championships quarterfinals after a narrow loss against host nation Hong Kong Wednesday, December 11, at the Hong Kong Football Club.
Hong Kong’s squad is led by two top-fifty-ranked players including world No. 39 Alex Lau who faced Team USA’s Timmy Brownell in the opening match up. It was the American who earned a hard-fought point for the U.S., coming back from 2-1 down to win 11-6, 9-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-8 in sixty-five minutes.
Hong Kong leveled the match score at 1-all in the No. 3 match Tang Ming Tong defeated Nicholas Spizzirri 8-11, 11-4, 6-11, 12-14 in forty-seven minutes.
Hong Kong’s world No. 44 Henry Leung earned a quarterfinal appearance for the tournament hosts in the decisive No. 2 match against Spencer Lovejoy. Leung fought off a third game comeback 6-11, 6-11, 11-2, 11-4 in forty-three minutes.
The U.S. men will now compete in the 9-16 place playoffs and will take on Spain Thursday at 4:30am.
The U.S. begin their playoff campaign in the quarterfinals against India, who defeated Australia in their pre-quarterfinal match on Wednesday.
The U.S. women will vie for a spot in the semifinals at 4:30am ET. Watch the match live on wsfworldteams.com.