Tin-Tin Ho’s dreams of helping Great Britain to qualify a women’s team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were ended by a ruthless Spanish display at the qualifying tournament in Portugal on Wednesday.
Ranked 11 places below their 14th-ranked opponents, it was always going to be a tough task for Great Britain's trio of Ho, fellow England Commonwealth Games medallist Maria Tsaptsinos and Wales' Charlotte Carey.
All three GB players are ranked below their opposite numbers, but they made the ideal start as Carey and Tsaptsinos took the first game of the opening doubles 11-7 against Galia Dvorak and Sofia-Xuan Zhang.
But that was as good as it got for GB as the Spanish won the next nine games, taking the doubles 3-1 (7-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-8) before Ho, the world number 102, lost 3-0 (11-9, 11-3, 11-8) to number 69 Maria Xiao.
Dvorak then beat Carey 3-0 (11-5, 11-5, 11-6) to see Spain through to the final play-off match against Austria, in which the winner will book a place in Tokyo.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here