Finally, a medal for Singapore

Table Tennis-Singapore set for rare medal
3 hours, 19 minutes ago
Buzz Up


By Simon Rabinovitch

BEIJING, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Singapore was guaranteed their first Olympic medal since 1960—and only their second of all time—by beating South Korea on Friday to advance to the women’s team championship in table tennis.

A weightlifting silver in 1960 in Rome has stood as the city-state’s only Olympic medal.
Singapore’s women will face the winner of a semi-final between China and Hong Kong. If they lose the championship match on Sunday, they would still take home the silver.

Somewhat dulling the achievement for the country of 4.6 million, the players and coach that carried Singapore to victory were all imports from table tennis powerhouse China.

“I feel very honoured. I’ve been in Singapore for just over two years and can help it get an Olympic medal, at least a silver, for the first time in 48 years,” coach Liu Guodong said.
Fired up by a vocal pro-Singapore crowd, world number nine Feng Tianwei was the key player, launching the contest with a rapid-fire win in the first match and closing it with a classy and controlled victory in the tense final match.

Singapore beat the previously undefeated South Korea three matches to two in the best-of-five contest.

Fans were treated to perhaps the finest table tennis of the Olympics yet in a match between Beijing-born Li Jia Wei, Singapore’s top player at world number six, and Kim Kyung-ah, South Korea’s best at 11th.

CONTRASTING STYLES
The contrasting styles of Li’s aggressive topspin and Kim’s defensive chops proved the perfect blend for rallies that regularly topped 20 hits.

Li, who has been frazzled by nerves on big occasions before, showed impatience toward the end, rushing her forehand. Kim fell to her knees after sealing the win, 5-11 11-8 9-11 11-6 and 11-9.
But Li rebounded in the doubles match, pairing up with world number seven Wang Yue Gu to swat aside their Korean opponents.

Wang dropped the next match in straight games to Korea’s Dang Ye-seo, bringing Singapore’s unflappable Feng back to the table for the deciding match. Despite the acrobatics of Korea’s Park Mi-young, Feng prevailed 11-7 12-10 3-11 and 11-9, winning when the Korean committed a rare error, faulting on her serve.

“In a battle like that, everyone is nervous. So if you can just keep it cool, you’ve got an advantage,” Feng said