Required to compete in the initial stage of proceedings, Hong Kong’s Lam Siu Hang was very much the player to attract the attention on the two days of qualification in the Men’s Singles event at the GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Australia Open in Tweed Heads.

The 18 year old remained unbeaten, finished in first place in his group and reserved his place in the main draw, where on Friday 5^th June, he went from strength to strength.

He recovered from a three games to one deficit in his opening match in the main draw against Belgium’s Cédric Nutinck, to post a seven games success (4-11, 5-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6, 13-11, 11-6), before causing one of the biggest upsets of the day in the very next round.

Against the odds, he accounted for Japan’s Seiya Kishikawa, the no.5 seed and winner of the Men’s Singles title at the 2011 Japan Open in Kobe.

Lam Siu Hang prevailed in a dramatic seven games contest which was somewhat the antithesis of his first round duel; in his second Men’s Singles contest of the day, he had to withstand a brave recover by Seiya Kishikawa, having established a three matches to one advantage (6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-7, 8-11, 8-11, 12-10).

"I am very excited; I lost the first game and then I had a three-one lead; I had a bit of luck to get the lead but I wanted to keep it”, said Lam Siu Hang. “I desperately wanted to win the match; he came back to three-three and I started to worry; my coach then just told me to just focus on attacking his serve with my forehand.”

Lam Siu Hang duly followed the advice of Liu Guodong, who is the brother of Chinese National Coach, Liu Guoliang and recently joined the Hong Kong coaching team.

“The reason why I played so well in this match is that I recovered from being down one-three in my last match and won four-three”, added Lam Siu Hang, “This gave me great confidence and made me believe that I could do anything."

A place booked in the quarter-finals of an ITTF World Tour Men’s Singles event for the first time in his career and seemingly he has a liking for Australia; his previous best was a second round exit when beaten last year by Singapore’s Yang Zi in Sydney.