Table tennis: Feng, Yu make quarters -sports

Singapore's No. 1 pair Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu eased into the quarter-finals of the women's doubles event at the World Table Tennis Championships in Suzhou, China, yesterday.

The Singaporeans beat Hong Kong's Jiang Huajun and Tie Yana 4-1 (8-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-7, 11-8) in the Round of 16 to advance to the last eight, where they will face South Korea's Park Young Sook and Yang Ha Eun today.

The Koreans secured their place in the last eight after a tough 4-2 (8-11, 6-11, 11-6, 13-11, 13-11, 12-10) victory over Austria's Liu Jia and Czech Republic's Iveta Vacenovska.

If the Singaporeans win today, they will at least match their bronze medal success in 2013, the last world championships that featured individual events.

Only the team events were on offer at the last year's world championships in Tokyo, where the Singapore women bagged the bronze.

Feng (left) and Yu will most likely face China's Liu Shiwen and Zhu Yuling in the semi-finals, if they advance.

World No. 4 Feng and Yu, ranked 16th in the world in the singles rankings, are also through to the Round of 32 in the women's singles.

Feng swept aside Germany's Sabine Winter 4-0 (11-9, 11-2, 11-6, 11-8), while Yu matched her teammate's result by thrashing Portugal's Leila Oliveira 11-3, 11-2, 13-11, 11-5.

Feng will face Poland's Katarzyna Grzybowska today while Yu will face another Pole, Li Qian.

If the two Singaporeans win, they will face each other in the Round of 16.

In the men's draw, Singapore's world No. 15 Gao Ning moved into the Round of 32 after beating Brazil's Gustavo Tsuboi 4-1 (3-11, 11- 4, 11-5, 11-2, 11-5) yesterday.

He will face Austria's Chen Weixing today.

This article was first published on April 30, 2015.
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