Team Malta aspirations of adding more gold to the country’s overall medals tally with only one day to go for the end of the Games were squashed by tennis player Stephanie Voigt yesterday afternoon.

In fact, Voigt, the world no.201, led Liechtenstein to two successive victories over Malta in doubles and mixed finals at the Tennis Club Arquebusiers.

Elaine Genovese and Roseanne Dimech were beaten by Voigt and Kathinka von Deichmann in the women’s doubles title match and later in the afternoon Voigt teamed up with Timo Kranz to seal another gold medal, this time at the expense of our mixed pair Genovese and Matthew Asciak.

With matches moved to the fast indoor courts due to the persistent rain, the Liechtenstein girls seemed to settle down nicely and raced through the opening set 6-1.

Genovese and Dimech produced a better fight in the second set and they even managed to break Von Deichmann’s serve in the fifth game to go 3-2 up. However, the Liechtensteiners immediately broke back to level the match.

The Maltese pair continued to give their all and saved a match-point in the ninth game to force a tie-break. Voigt was showing her class though and she led her team-mate to a 6-3 favourable score to seal the match 6-1 7-6.

“The Liechtenstein girls were no new opponents to us as a fortnight ago we saw them play at the Federation Cup tournament in Moldova,” Dimech, in her second GSSE appearance, said.

“They won all their Federation Cup matches and got promoted as a result of their success.

“I think, this was a tough match for us but we felt that we could have forced a third set.”

The opening stages of the mixed doubles final was evenly balanced with Liechtenstein serving for set point after breaking in the ninth game but the Maltese broke back to drag the set into a tie-break.

Asciak and Genovese had a good chance when leading 6-5 but Voigt and Kranz fought back to win it 8-6.

The Maltese pair surged to a 3-1 lead in the second set but Liechtenstein drew level at 4-4. The match seemed heading to a second tie-break but Genovese was broken in the 11th game and Liechtenstein held serve to take the set 7-5 and the title.

“A silver medal is always a good result but I think we could have done better in this final,” Asciak said.

“Liechtenstein have a very strong player in Voigt but we had enough opportunities to turn the match in our favour... unfortunately we failed to hit the points and they made us pay.”