Li Jiawei, Feng Tianwei Womens' Single went into table-tennis quarterfinals

BEIJING: Singapore table tennis players Li Jia Wei and Feng Tianwei continued their good run at the Olympics on Thursday morning by winning the women’s singles fourth round matches.

Feng Tianwei made short work of Li Jie of the Netherlands, beating the latter four sets to one in a mere 43 minutes.

Li Jie took the lead in the first set with 11-7, but did not stand a chance once Feng warmed up to the game. The Singaporean paddler took the next four sets straight at 13-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-4.

In the next table, things were more heated as Li Jia Wei battled Hong Kong’s Lin Ling.

It was a nail-biting showdown from start to end as both players evened the scores by taking a set each for the first six sets 4-11, 14-12, 10-12, 11-8, 5-11, 11-9.

On the deciding seventh game, Li Jia Wei managed to scrape through with a 13-11 win to enter Thursday evening’s quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, Singapore's male paddlers failed to do as well in their men’s singles third round matches.

Croatia’s Tan Ruiwu, who was in top shape, knocked Singapore’s Gao Ning out of the competition in just 24 minutes.

Gao seemed to be in poor form, and lost to Tan in all four sets 11-6, 14-12, 11-4, 11-7.

Over at table four, Singapore’s Yang Zi managed to pull one off over Chinese Taipei’s Chuan Chih-Yuan in a close 61-minute match.

The pair tied for six sets with 14-12, 7-11, 11-8, 7-11, 5-11, 11-7. In the deciding seventh set, Yang smashed Chuan out of the match with a 12-10 win.

Both Li Jiawei and Feng will compete in the table tennis women's singles quarterfinals at 6pm on Thursday, 21st Aug '08.

Li Jiawei will meet American Wang Chen, while Feng will play a tougher match against China’s number one paddler Zhang Yining.