6 Things To Know About Singapore Table Tennis Star Yu Mengyu Before Her Olympic Bronze Medal Match Tonight

This is the second Olympics for Mengyu, who made her Olympic debut in Rio 2016. She took part in both the team and singles competition, and performed admirably well in both, reaching the quarter-finals.

Fingers crossed that she’ll best her previous record, and go on to win a bronze medal.

Although Mengyu is ranked number 47 now, she was ranked ninth in the world in March 2010. And judging from her performance in the Olympics, we wouldn’t be surprised if her ranking moves up a few notches subsequently.

Mengyu joined Singapore’s Table Tennis Association 14 years ago when she was 17. She was born in Liaoning, China.

Since then, she has been training with Team Singapore, and representing the country at various international competitions. She has won 42 medals as part of Team Singapore, in both singles and team events.

She has braved all odds to make it to the third-place play-off.

Mengyu beat Portugal’s Shao Jieni, who’s ranked 62 in the world, as well as eighth-ranked Taiwanese Cheng I-Ching, and Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa, who’s ranked 10th in the world, amongst other opponents, to make it to today’s game.

She will be facing Japan's world No. 2 Mima Ito later tonight. Mengyu has faced Mima eight times thus far, with a 7-1 record in favour of Mima.

Mengyu has a chronic back injury, and she had to be in a wheelchair at the Doha airport after the WTT Star Contender event in Qatar in March this year. She also suffered a thigh injury earlier today while playing against World No. 1, Chen Meng.

But she’s still fighting strong.

Speaking to reporters after her match against Chen Meng today, Mengyu said: “No matter who I face, I will try my best to keep fighting and have no regrets. I can't really move much but I'm not giving up just because of my injury. The fact that I can compete in this arena means something. Regardless of the result, I hope I will finish the whole competition.”

In a press conference on July 23, she hinted that Tokyo 2020 might be her swansong.

"This is something I will need to think of after Tokyo. If the national team still needs me, I will give it my all, but I'm also considering contributing in other roles,” she said to reporters. "I don't want to have any regrets that I haven't given it my all.”

Good luck, Mengyu!

Watch Yu Mengyu in action against Mima Ito on meWATCH at 7pm tonight (Jul 29) here.

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.

Photos: SportSG, Yu Mengyu/Instagram