SINGAPORE - Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu's run at the World Table Tennis Championships ended on Monday (June 5) when they lost to China pair Zhu Yuling and Chen Meng 6-11, 6-11, 11-6, 8-11, 7-11 in the semi-finals.

Feng and Yu, 11th seeds in the doubles competition, had not competed as a pair since the Swedish Open in November 2015 and were overpowered by the Chinese third seeds.

They finished with a bronze medal for the third straight time, equalling their result at the 2013 and 2015 editions. The World Championships alternate between the team and individual formats each year.

The turning point of the match came in the fourth game, when the Singapore duo were threatening to level the scores.

Down 6-9, Feng and Yu won the next two points to make it 8-9. China quickly called a time-out to kill the Singaporeans' momentum and it paid off, as Zhu and Cheng won the next three points to take the game.

World No. 4 Feng was disappointed at the loss, after coming so close to a spot in the final. She said: "We were quite happy to get this far but we were also hoping for a breakthrough here. We have some regrets but we're looking forward to giving our best in the next tournament."