HONG KONG: Hong Kong's best known snooker player Marco Fu Ka-chun left the stadium without saying a word. The sluggish performance of the world-ranked No 8 player not only dumbfounded his supporters in the stadium, but also smashed Hong Kong's high gold medal prospects before the match.

Mainland player Yu Delu, 22, proved in the first three frames that the host-city player did not dread him at all. Fu snapped up an opportunity in the fourth frame, but Yu gave no further ground. He made a clearance of 70 in the fifth frame and snuffed out Hong Kong's hope by 4-1 in the Snooker Single Men Quarterfinals yesterday.

"I did not prepare in specifics to deal with Fu," said Yu after the match. "I was just trying my best on my own."

Hopes were pinned on Fu to snatch a medal in cue sports, as the mainland's best two snooker players, Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo did not join the roster for the 2009 East Asian Games in Hong Kong this time.

Hong Kong snooker player Fung Kwok-wai also succumbed - to Tian Pengfei from the mainland 4-0 in competing for another quarterfinal place in the men's snooker event last night.

As for the action on the other kind of table, defeated by the Republic of Korea on Wednesday, Hong Kong men's table-tennis team successfully beat Chinese Taipei in Group B competition yesterday and secured a ticket for the semifinals. As it was placed second in the group, Hong Kong will face Group A's "invincible" Chinese men's team in the next round.

The Chinese men's table-tennis team led Group A with another 3-0 shutout of Japan yesterday morning. World champion Wang Hao made his debut in the Games with a decisive 3-0 drubbing of Mizutani Jun, after his teammate Xu Xin took the opening match 3-0 against Kishikawa Seiya. In the third match, Zhang Jike took the lead in the first two games, but lost the third and fourth. However, Zhang demoralized the Japanese team by overcoming Matsudaira Kenji, 11-8 in the last game, securing China's first place position in the group.

"I encountered Matsudaira at the Asian Cup earlier, and he seems improved this time, especially in his service. My back was injured,which affected my performance a bit, but not seriously. The reason I lost two games was that I performed too conservatively after leading the first two games," said Zhang.

The Hong Kong women's table-tennis team shut out the Republic of Korea with a straight 3:0 performance in the morning, and a repeat 3-0 victory over Chinese Taipei in the evening. Placing first in Group B enables Hong Kong to avoid having to face China in the semifinals, but Japan, which lost to China, is now ranked second in Group A.

The Hong Kong men's football team went wide-eyed over the gusto of football fans last night. In the first preliminary contest with the Republic of Korea in Group B, goals scored by four Hong Kong football players, Chan Wai-ho, Wong Chin-hung, Xu Deshuai and Chan Siu-ki, vanquished the Republic of Korea 4-1, which scored only a single goal by the end of the first half.

Another lineup in Group B, the Chinese men's football team will arrive in Hong Kong on Saturday to compete for the only two qualified positions in the group.

In light of complaints from the public about the inconvenience in purchasing tickets, organizers of the Games yesterday decided to start selling remaining tickets right at some stadiums.

Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs Carrie Yau said yesterday that they assumed the public would prefer to purchase tickets in advance, which neglected those who might not be able to find the ticket-sales outlets. Therefore, tickets will hereafter be sold on the spot at four stadiums including Queen Elizabeth Stadium, Lai Chi Kok Park Sports Centre, King's Park Hockey Ground and Victoria Park Tennis Centre. Initially, all the tickets of the Games were available for purchase only at some designated venues or on the Internet.

(HK Edition 12/04/2009 page1)