After losing the first two games and facing two game points in the third against a younger and higher-ranked opponent, Singapore's top women's paddler Feng Tianwei looked out for the count.
But the 32-year-old tapped on her experience and tweaked her tactics to beat world No. 9 Miu Hirano of Japan 4-2 (8-11, 9-11, 11-10, 5-4, 5-3, 5-4) in the round of 16 of the Seamaster T2 Diamond 2019 Malaysia at the Iskandar Malaysia Studios in Johor Baru yesterday.
World No. 13 Feng told The Straits Times: "(Hirano) struggled with my serve the last time we met, but she learnt from that and returned better (today). As such, I had problems on my serve in the first two games.
"But I adjusted my serve and it worked better in the following games.
"I'm also struggling with a wrist injury, but that, in a way, gave me a better mentality and temperament as I took each point and each game as they came."
The T2 Diamond series runs on a 11-point, no-deuce, best-of-seven-game format. If there is no winner after 24 minutes, the games are then played in the "Fast 5" format (first to five points) until one player wins four games.
The "Fast 5" proved to be Feng's forte as she won three games on the trot, including a recovery from 3-0 down in the fourth game, to put away 19-year-old Hirano.
Feng added: "I have the advantage of having played a similar format in this competition in 2017.
"I feel the 'Fast 5' suits me because I was able to come up with the decisive points when I needed them."
Hirano said: "I lost control of the match after losing the third game. After that, I got a bit defensive and that was how I lost the 'Fast 5'."
This is Feng's first victory over Hirano in five attempts since 2016 and the first time she has beaten a top-10 player since December 2017.
She admitted that it is a timely confidence boost going into next year's Olympic qualifiers.
Feng will meet China's Ding Ning in today's quarter-finals after the world No. 3 beat Romania's 19th-ranked Bernadette Szocs 4-1 (5-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-2, 5-2).
After tomorrow's finals, in which the men and women's singles winners will each take home US$100,000 (S$136,000), the US$500,000 series moves to Haikou, China (Sept 26-29) and Singapore (Nov 21-24).
