Table Tennis World Cup: Feng Tianwei misses out on medal, finishing fourth

Story by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Photos by Tan Jon Han and Low Sze Sen/Red Sports

Toa Payoh Sports Hall, Sunday, October 30, 2011 – Singapore’s top paddler Feng Tianwei failed to finish on the podium at the 2011 Women’s Table Tennis World Cup. Tianwei went down to China’s Ding Ning in the semi-final, then failed to overcome Tie Yana of Hong Kong in the third/fourth-placing match.

The inability to maintain her fine start in both her matches let her down as she won the first set against both her opponents, but was poor in subsequent sets. The 25-year-old lost 1-4 to both opponents.

In the semi-final, world number two Ding Ning proved to be the bogey player for Singapore at this tournament as she added Feng Tianwei to her list of Singaporean victims, beating the home-crowd favourite 7-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-6, 11-4.

Despite a great start, Tianwei could not find a way past Ding, who had beaten Singaporeans Wang Yuegu and Li Jia Wei in the first round of the tournament. Tianwei was very aggressive early in the first set, putting the Chinese star on the back foot with powerful smashes.

Much to the delight of the home crowd, Tianwei took the first set 11-7.

However, it went downhill from there. The second set was close as the two traded points, with Ding just edging it 11-9 towards the end, but the third was just dismal from the Singaporean. She allowed her opponent to rattle off six straight points at the start before finding herself facing game point at 10-2.

She saved two but was helpless to stop Ding from taking a two set to one lead.

The same followed in the final two sets as Feng went down meekly. She lost the next one without troubling Ding much. Although she started the fifth set well and matcher her opponent initially, the Chinese was just too good for her and she was powerless to stop her opponent from securing a place in the final.

“There were some situations which I did not handle well,” explained Tianwei, the world number four.

“I did not fully utilize my chances. After I won the first set, Ding changed her strategy, and I found myself having difficulty to keep up.”

Feng had just an hour and a half to recover from the defeat before playing in the third/fourth play-off against Hong Kong’s Tie Yana, who lost to Li Xiaoxia 2-4 (6-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-1).

Once again, she was quick off the blocks, winning the first set easily 11-3, but failed to maintain the pressure on her Hong Kong opponent. That allowed the two-time bronze medallist to gain confidence and exert herself on the game, taking the second set 11-6.

The third set was much closer with both players exchanging points in the aggressively contested affair with plenty of long rallies. Eventually, however, Tie managed to just edge ahead to win the set 11-9.

A horrid performance in the fourth pretty much sealed Feng’s fate. Countless unforced errors proved to be her downfall as she went down 5-11. She did her best in an attempt to come back in the fifth, but eventually two wide shots at the end lost the match for her.

After the match, Feng admitted that her opponent was “too good” for her.

“The opponent was very strong and there were some loopholes in my skills that she capitalized on,” commented a disappointed Feng. “The pressure was on me to win with all the fans coming down and I wanted to play better to win. I was also a bit tired, but Tie was also in a similar state so I think today, she did well.”

Feng’s attention now turns to the South-East Asian (SEA) Games as she, along with Sun Bei Bei, Isabelle Li and Zena Sim, will try to do Singapore proud and bring home some medals.