In a win-or-go-home match in the Women’s Team Table Tennis round of 16, Melissa took a two games to one lead against her Chinese Taipei opponent Chen Szu-Yu at the South Paris Arena.
Looking the stronger of the two for most of the match, Melissa held a 9-8 lead deep in the fourth game as she edged closer to a famous victory and to force the round into a fourth match.
However, Chen clawed her way back to take the fourth, before edging Melissa in the fifth to hold off the Aussie who bowed out of her third Olympics in style.
The loss was the third of the round for Australia, after Melissa and Michelle Bromley lost the doubles match 11-4, 11-3, 11-7 to Chen and Chien Tung-Chuan, and Minhyung Jee lost to Cheng I-Ching 11-5, 11-7, 11-4 in the first singles match.
Melissa said she was surprised and happy with her performance.
“My main goal was to try and win as many points as I could, and kept surprising myself when I got the first set and then somehow got two sets and then had a sniff at almost winning the match,” she said.
“I really wanted to try and win a match for our team so that we’d get to go out there and play another match.
“But I'm really proud of us girls for getting out there and trying to make them fight for every point that they needed to win.
“We didn't want to just make it a walk in the park.”
The first Australian to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics, Melissa will now turn her attention to the Paris Paralympics at the end of the month.
She said that while she still planned to retire after those Games, she couldn’t have asked to have ended her Olympic career in a better way.
“I don't think I could have asked for anything more,” she said. “Maybe the win would have been nice but at Olympic level, I don't know that I've ever won a set.
“Today I was able to take two and almost run away with the match. So for me, that's an absolute dream.”
