Olympics: Singapore paddler Yu Mengyu storms into semi-finals

Jul 28, 2021 10:13 am

Singapore paddler Yu Mengyu has reached the Tokyo 2020 women's singles semi-finals after defeating Japan's world No. 10 Kasumi Ishikawa 4-1 (8-11, 11-5, 14-12, 11-6, 11-1) at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Wednesday (July 28).

Yu, the world No. 47, will face China’s top-ranked Chen Meng in the semi-finals on Thursday. Chen defeated Hong Kong’s world No. 15 Doo Hoi Kem 4-2 (6-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-1, 11-8) in her quarter-final.

This is the first time that Singapore have reached the last four since Feng Tianwei won a singles bronze at London 2012. Feng's singles run at Tokyo 2020 ended on Tuesday, when she lost 4-1 to Germany's Han Ying in the round of 16.

Yu, 31, has also surpassed her quarter-final showing at Rio 2016, when she made her Olympic debut.

She started her Tokyo 2020 campaign with straight-set wins over Portugal’s world No. 63 Shao Jieni on Sunday and Taiwan's world No. 8 Cheng I-Ching on Tuesday before defeating America’s 449th-ranked Liu Juan 4-2 in the round of 16 later that day.