Singapore’s paddler Yu Mengyu faced off with China’s world No.1 Chen Meng in the Tokyo Olympics women’s singles semi-finals on Thursday morning (29 July), but couldn’t quite make it through, losing 4-0 (11,6, 11-8, 11-7, 11-6).
Though Yu smashed her way through the quarter-finals against Japan’s world No.9, she just missed out on her chance for gold as she came up against Chen.
Ranked 47th in the world, Yu put up a good game and tried hard to keep up. However, she was no match for the quick and decisive Chen.
All hope for a medal is not lost, however, as Yu still has a shot at bronze.
The last time Singapore made it this far in this event was in London 2012 when Feng Tianwei brought home a bronze medal in the same event.
Still, the challenge will be tough as Yu will have to face either Japan’s world No.2 Mima Ito or China’s world No.3 Sun Yingsha in the bronze medal playoff later today.
Medal or not, Yu has already exceeded expectations at Tokyo 2020, having defeated Portugal’s Shao Jieni, Taiwanese Cheng I-ching, American Liu Juan, and Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa to reach the semi-finals.
