Feng knows she must improve

Feng Tianwei has three Olympic medals under her belt, a world team title and has climbed to world No. 2 in an illustrious career.

Now ranked ninth in the world, she would hardly be considered an underdog against an opponent placed 13 rungs below her.

But that is the situation that Feng, playing in her fourth Olympic Games, finds herself in if she takes on world No. 22 Han Ying of Germany in the round of 16 today.

The China-born Han will first have to beat Australia's world No. 156 Lay Jianfang today to qualify for the match-up against the Singaporean.

The 38-year-old will be a tough nut to crack for Feng, who has not beaten the German in four previous encounters.

With a wry laugh, Feng, 34, told The Straits Times: "I'm the underdog because I have been losing to her in international matches and in the Japanese T.League, and often by big margins.

"She is a chopper, a defensive player the likes of which I don't face often. But I have had some practice against similar sparring partners during this build-up, so I hope to achieve a breakthrough if I play against her."

Feng will also need to get into gear quickly after a slow start yesterday in her third-round match against Spain's world No. 72 Maria Xiao.

For the first 10 minutes, nothing seemed to go right for Singapore's most-bemedalled Olympian. She lost her first game and could not find her groove.

But the veteran paddler woke up from her slumber to win the second game and never looked back, claiming victory 4-1 (8-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-2, 11-4) in 46 minutes at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

Feng said: "The second game was very crucial. If I had lost that, I would have been down two games and it would be very difficult to come back from that.

"This was my first match (after receiving a bye), so it's normal to feel some nerves, whereas my opponent was playing her third match. Her form was better than I expected, and she was more used to the surroundings than I was.

"I still have much to improve on but I'm pleased with the way I managed to find solutions in a difficult situation."

Teammate Yu Mengyu, who is ranked 47th in the world, will also be aiming to join Feng in the next round as she takes on Chinese Taipei's world No. 8 Cheng I-ching in the round of 32 today.

In other women's singles action yesterday, China's gold-medal favourite Chen Meng cruised to a 4-0 win against Swiss opponent Rachel Moret to ease her way into the round of 16.

In the men's singles third round, Japan's world No. 4 Tomokazu Harimoto suffered a cut after scraping the middle finger on his dominant right hand when hitting a backhand shot, shedding blood and sweat in a hard-fought 4-1 (11-9, 13-11, 8-11, 12-10, 12-10) win over Hong Kong's world No. 95 Lam Siu Hang to keep alive Japan's hopes of a first men's singles gold medal.

Harimoto, 18, said it was "a lucky injury" that allowed him to regain his composure.

The first table tennis gold of the Games served up a thrilling mixed doubles contest between Japan's Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito and Chinese top seeds Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen, who are also the reigning world champions.

Seeded second, the Japanese duo edged their rivals 4-3 (5-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-9, 6-11, 11-6) to deny China a clean sweep in Tokyo.

This is the host nation's first table tennis gold at the Olympics, with the mixed doubles making its debut at these Games.