Decent draw for paddlers in Rio
If the seedings hold, Singapore's top female paddler Feng Tianwei will have to overcome Spaniard southpaw Shen Yanfei in the third round of the Olympics women's singles competition that starts on Saturday.
Second seed Feng, along with ninth seed Yu Mengyu, will start play from the third round as they have qualified as the top 16 seeds.
With a 3-4 win-loss record against Shen, Feng has had problems despatching the 36-year-old previously, with four consecutive 3-4 defeats from 2010 to 2012.
The streak finally ended with a 4-2 win for Feng at the 2012 World Tour Grand Finals.
If she can get past Shen, the 29-year-old Singaporean stands a good chance to progress all the way to the semi-finals.
She could meet Austria's Liu Jia, whom she has a perfect 5-0 record against, in the fourth round, before a quarter-final showdown against Japan's Ai Fukuhara, whom she has beaten 14 times in 17 previous encounters.
Things will get tricky if Feng reaches the semi-finals, as she is slated to meet defending Olympic champion, China's Li Xiaoxia, whom she has not beaten in all 10 past meetings.
Singapore No. 2 Yu had a kind draw as she was picked into Section 2, in which she could meet Austria's Sofia Polcanova, whom she has a 2-1 record and recently beat in this year's Kuwait Open, in the third round.
If she proceeds to the fourth round and quarter-finals, she could meet South Korea's Jeon Ji Hee and Kasumi Ishikawa respectively whom she has a 1-0 and 8-8 win-loss record against.
Yu will avoid Chinese opposition until the semi-finals, when she could meet world No. 2 Ding Ning, whom she has failed to beat in six attempts.
MOTIVATION
Singapore table tennis team manager Eddy Tay said: "It is a fairly good draw for Mengyu, which should give her extra motivation.
"Other than China, the standard is very close among the rest. It really depends on how the players perform on the actual day."
In the draw for the women's team event, Singapore were drawn in the same half as China, which sets up a tantalising semi-final clash against the table tennis powerhouses.
They will have to overcome Egypt in the Round of 16 and then possibly South Korea in the quarter-finals to get there.
Table tennis is Singapore's most profitable sport at the Olympics, with one silver and two bronzes won at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 respectively.
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