Singapore’s Yu Mengyu has qualified for the women’s singles table tennis semi-final at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday (28 July) after beating Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa 4-1.
The last time a Singaporean athlete made it to the semi-finals at the Olympic table tennis singles event was Feng Tianwei back in 2012.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Yu fought her way through to the quarter-finals but fell short against Korea’s Kim Song-i, putting herself out of reach for a medal.
Going into the quarter-finals this year, Yu had a 7-8 head-to-head record against her opponent, who is ranked 10th in the world.
Yu is ranked 47th.
The first game was very close, and though Yu proved that she could hold her own against her opponent, Ishikawa ultimately took victory with a score of 11-8.
In the second game, however, Yu secured a 6-3 lead which she eventually stretched to an 11-5 victory, taking advantage of several errors by Ishikawa.
The third game was a battle with Ishikawa fighting hard and building up a lead early on. However, after taking herself up to a tie of 8-8, Yu pushed herself for the win at 14-12.
In the fourth game, Yu kept steady and pulled a victory out from under Ishikawa with a lengthy rally that sealed the game for her with a score of 11-6.
Yu appeared to cruise by the fifth and final game, securing 11-2 against an obviously frazzled Ishikawa.
The three other quarter-final matches for the women’s singles event are scheduled for the day, and Yu will soon find out who she’ll have to face for a shot at a medal.
