Beijing, Thursday, August 14, 2008 – The Singapore women’s table tennis team beat the Netherlands 3-0 to seal their spot in the semi-finals at the Beijing Olympics today.

In their hardest match so far, Singapore were made to work for their victory. Feng Tianwei took 43 minutes to beat Li Jiao in the first singles but eventually won 11-9, 10-12, 10-12, 11-5, 11-8.

Li Jia Wei then made short work of Elena Timina when she won 14-12, 11-2, 11-3 in 19min.

However, Jia Wei and Wang Yue Gu were made to suffer through a five-set 33-minute match by Li Jie and Elena Timina. The pairing, who lost their first game against Nigeria unexpectedly in their 3-1 win yesterday, this time won their first set 11-8.

The Dutch pair though made things uncomfortable for them by winning the next two games 11-5, 11-6 before Jia Wei and Yue Gu came back to win the last two games 11-6, 11-7.

Singapore expect to meet South Korea in the semi-finals tomorrow.