The doubles pair of Jessica Pace and Li Pengfei obtained a 3-1 victory against Monaco to secure third place and the bronze medal in the round robin tournament at the Games for European Small States.
It was a come from behind victory for the Maltese duo as they lost the first game and then won the other three to make sure of their win.
The victory gave 15-year-old Jessica Pace a lot of satisfaction as this was her first ever participation at such levels. But it was mostly thanks to the experience and good technical levels of Li Pengfei that the duo secured the medal.
The match started with Pace losing her singles clash with Ulrika Quist 1-3. The turning point was the third set. With the score at 1-1, Quest won a tie-break and went on to clinch the first point after winning the fourth set.
Then Li Pengfei defeated Lauren Riley 3-1 to make it 1-1 and that was followed by a victory in the doubles where Pengfei and Pace triumphed 3-1. The Chinese girl then easily beat Quest 3-0 to ascertain the team of their win.
The Malta team finished the tournament with two wins and two defeats. They beat San Marino and Monaco and lost to Luxembourg and Cyprus.
The two players were delighted with their win.
For young Pace, it was a tremendous experience. She said: “It is a dream come true. In actual fact, this is more than I expected. I came here with the main intention of gaining more experience, but this bronze medal win is a sort of boost for us as we now look forward with optimism towards our next commitments this week.”
Li said: “I am very happy to have won this medal for Malta. We have worked hard for it and we hope to achieve more success in the forthcoming events.”
Coach Alex Anastasi praised both players for their performance, but went on to single out young Jessica Pace because of her tender age. “She was inexperienced but improved and gained more confidence with every match played. I now expect to see them playing even better in their remaining commitments – the doubles and singles competitions – in the hope of winning more medals,” he said.
After the win, it was still not yet known whether Malta was assured of the bronze medal. Alex Anastasi said we all had to wait and see the remaining results, but later in the afternoon, Association President Joe Borg Cardona said on the phone that the medal was assured as the Maltese had earlier beaten Monaco – the other team who were also being considered for the bronze medal.