Table tennis: Yu Mengyu reaches quarter-finals at Tokyo Olympics

TOKYO — Singapore table tennis player Yu Mengyu defeated Liu Juan of the United States at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Tuesday (July 27) to reach the women's singles quarter-finals at the Tokyo Olympics.

In action for the second time on Tuesday, 47th-ranked Yu looked sharp as she defeated her 36-year-old opponent 4-2.

Yu won 11-9, 11-9, 11-9, 8-11, 6-11, 11-8, to book a date in the last eight against world no 10 Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan on Wednesday.

With the result, Yu has matched her best singles performance at an Olympics, having previously made the quarter-finals at the Rio Games in 2016.

"My opponent was tactically well prepared and some of her techniques were better than mine. That's why the first three games were very close," said Yu, speaking in Mandarin to reporters after the match. 

"But at the end, I probably had stronger willpower," added Yu with a laugh.

Yu swept past world number eight Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei earlier in the day to progress to the round of 16, while Liu upset Romanian Bernadette Szocs.

The 31-year-old Singaporean had a day off on Monday, after her victory against Portugal’s Shao Jieni on Sunday.

Yu's Singapore team-mate Feng Tianwei will be in action against Germany's Han Ying later on Tuesday. CNA

For more stories like this, visit cna.asia. 

Catch the Olympics Games Tokyo 2020 LIVE with 14 dedicated channels on meWATCH. Sign in now at mewatch.sg/tokyo2020 and get into the action with Mediacorp, Singapore’s Olympics Network.