There was more frustration yesterday when in the doubles’ events Simon Gerada and Andrzej Makowski and Yu Wang and Johanna Grech missed out on the final and had to settle for bronze.

In the men’s event, playing in Group A, Gerada/ Makowski chalked up two wins, beating the pair from San Marino 3-2 and Andorra 3-0 to complete their round robin commitments with full points.

On their part, the ladies also had a perfect start in Group A after identical victories of 3-2 and 3-0 over Yan/Diao (San Marino) and Bjornsdottir/Olafs (Iceland) respectively.

Gerada and Makowski, however, were defeated by the Cypriot pair Serafimov/ Talavanov 3-2 in the semi-final.

The Maltese pair had an impressive start, taking a 2-1 lead, winning their sets 11-8, 11-10 but the Cypriots fought back to take them to a deciding game and then completed their revival by winning the match 11-9.

In another tense semi-final, their female compatriots suffered the same fate and were beaten by their Cypriot counterparts 3-2. After racing to a 2-1 lead (11-9, 11-8), the Maltese duo let the game slip from their grip and suffered the comeback of Atanasova/Kourea.

Now, Yu Wang remains the only hope to get to the higher podium after the men's team were unable to repeat their Andorra gold haul.

In the morning, Gerada and Makowski suffered further disappointment after failing to qualify for the singles’ semi-finals on set difference.

In his robin round commitments, Makowski lost just one match – against the Cypriot Serafimov – from seven matches but did not qualify on set difference, claiming that it was his previous day’s defeat after being 8-3 ahead which had sent him reeling.

After losing two out of six, the defending medallist Gerada was forced to win his last match against Michely with a margin of two sets but the Icelandic player proved to be a hard nut to crack and the Australian-born player conceded two frames and was eliminated.