S. Korea await women paddlers in q-final
The national women table tennis players recovered from their heartbreak in the Olympics singles event to win their opening team event match against Egypt at the Riocentro Pavilion 3 yesterday.
Fourth seeds Singapore will take on seventh seeds South Korea in the quarter-finals tomorrow night at 9pm for a place in the final four, where they will aim to at least retain the bronze medal won at London 2012.
Three days after being bundled out of the quarter-finals of the women's singles event and missing out on a possible medal, Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu rebounded to play key roles in the 3-0 victory over the Egyptians yesterday.
World No. 13 Yu was first up and she easily despatched world No. 110 Dina Meshref 3-0 (11-3, 11-6, 11-6).
World No. 4 Feng had some trouble in the second game but emerged unscathed with a 3-1 (11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-4) win over world No. 211 Nadeen El-Dawlatly.
In the following doubles match, world No. 32 Zhou Yihan made her Olympic debut, teaming up well with Yu to take apart world No. 362 Yousra Helmy and El-Dawlatly 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-4).
BRINK
Meanwhile, South Korea were given a scare by Romania in their last-16 clash yesterday, going the full distance before world No. 17 Seo Hyo Won beat world No. 78 Bernadette Szocs after the maximum five games in the fifth singles to clinch a 3-2 victory.
The South Koreans also comprise world No. 11 Jeon Ji Hee, who lost 4-1 to Yu in the fourth round of the women's singles, and world No. 26 Yang Ha Eun.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now