SINGAPORE - Feng Tianwei's year ended in defeat on Sunday (Dec 5) but Singapore's top paddler vowed to come back stronger in 2022.
The 35-year-old veteran lost 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-7) to world No. 1 Chen Meng in the quarter-finals of the inaugural World Table Tennis (WTT) Cup Finals at the OCBC Arena.
World No. 11 Feng said: "I think I played pretty well. Chen Meng is a much better player than me in every way so she had the advantage. I tried to find solutions but she really played very well today."
Having been away from home for over a year, she relished the opportunity to play in front of local fans and said she was looking forward to a well-deserved break here.
Feng, who is mainly based in Japan, said: "I think having a competition here is really good because the people in Singapore do have an interest in table tennis. If they hold it here every year, I hope I can participate as long as I haven't retired.
"I've been overseas for over a year and even coming here for the competition, all the players are in a bubble so I haven't gone home yet. I want to go home and rest for a few days.
"This is my last competition but next year, there's the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games and if I get to compete, I hope to get some good results for Singapore."
Tokyo 2020 champion Chen, 27, was pleased with her performance and the way she overcame her initial unfamiliarity in the new venue.
She said: "I've played against Feng Tianwei a lot of times so I understand her playing style quite well. Today, my focus was also better and I felt more involved in the match compared to yesterday.
"There were some exciting rallies today so I'm happy to win the match. The semi-finals will test my endurance and the opponents will be much stronger too so I hope I can continue doing well and get stronger."
Next up for her is compatriot and world No. 6 Wang Yidi, who eliminated Japanese Hitomi Sato 3-1 (9-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-8) in the other last-eight clash of the US$600,000 (S$823,000) tournament.
Men's world No. 1 Fan Zhendong continued his dominant form as he got past South Korean Jeoung Young-sik 3-0 (11-6, 16-14, 11-6) in the quarter-finals.
Fan, 24, who claimed the world championship last week, thanked the crowd for their cheers.
He said: "The ambience was very good and it's really important for an athlete to experience this kind of atmosphere. Whether it was today or yesterday, I had lots of support and it helped me focus so I was able to do my best.
"Jeoung performed very well today. In the second game, I tried not to think too much about the points but I was determined not to let him tie the score.
"He surprised me with a lot of his shots but I was able to stay calm and made sure to take it one point at a time."
It will get harder though from here, as the semi-finals and finals are best of seven matches.
Fan said: "It'll be more demanding on me physically and mentally.
"Whether it's stamina or determination, I'll need to be focused for a longer period of time so no matter who the opponent is, his condition will be very good, so I'll just do my best to prepare and put up m best performance."
