S'pore table tennis women beat Czechs to make quarter-finals of World C'ships
The Republic's women continued their march at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Chengdu, China on Wednesday, beating the Czech Republic 3-1 to progress to the quarter-finals.
They will meet either Chinese Taipei or India for a place in the semi-finals next.
Singapore trailed early in their match against the Czechs, as world No. 130 Zhou Jingyi's valiant display was not enough against 28th-ranked Hana Matelova, the 17-year-old going down 3-1 (11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9).
World No. 54 Zeng Jian, Singapore's top-ranked player at this event in the absence of 18th-ranked Feng Tianwei, then had to be on her toes to overcome Katerina Tomanovska.
Despite being ranked 206th, the Czech put up a good showing to lead 9-5 in the first game and 5-2 in the second and third, before Zeng prevailed with her variety and quality of shots to win 3-0 (12-10, 11-9, 11-9).
Up stepped world No. 195 Wong Xin Ru, 20, to give 2010 champions Singapore the lead when she beat 404th-ranked Marketa Sevcikova 3-0 (11-7, 14-12, 11-7).
Zeng, who has not lost a match at this tournament, returned to the table to claim her sixth win in six days as the 25-year-old overwhelmed Matelova 3-0 (11-6, 11-4, 11-7) to seal overall victory for Singapore.
Wednesday's result means the team have improved on their previous performance at the 2018 edition when the likes of Feng, Yu Mengyu and Lin Ye were stunned 3-2 by Ukraine in the round of 16.
They last claimed a medal in 2014, when they reached the semi-finals to claim the shared bronze.
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