Feng Tianwei

Feng Tianwei is a Singaporean retired table tennis player. Born in China, she permanently moved to Singapore in March 2007 at the age of 20 under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme and commenced her international career in competitive table tennis the following month.
Feng represented Singapore for the first time in the Olympic Games at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. On 15 August 2008, the Singapore team comprising Feng and her teammates Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu defeated South Korea 3–2 in the semifinals. The team lost to China in the final, obtaining the silver medal. This was Singapore's first Olympic medal in 48 years and its first as an independent nation.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Feng defeated Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan 4–0 to win the women's singles bronze medal, Singapore's first Olympic singles medal since the 1960 Summer Olympics. She would later won the bronze medal at the women's team event with Li and Wang against South Korea. This was the first time Singapore had won two medals at an Olympic Games.
On 15 March 2015, Feng defeated Zhu Yuling and Liu Shiwen at the 2015 Asian Cup in Jaipur to be crowned Asian Cup Champion for the first time. At the same time, she broke China's 7 consecutive years of dominance in this tournament.
On 25 October 2016, the Singapore Table Tennis Association announced that it would not be renewing its contract with Feng, citing the need for rejuvenation of the national team. However, STTA has confirmed to support her for future international competitions if she meets the selection criteria. A few months after her exit from STTA, she went on to beat then world number one and Olympic gold medalist Ding Ning 3–2 in the Chinese Table Tennis Super League.
On 11 October 2019, Feng defeated Chen Meng, then ranked world number one, in four straight games, causing the biggest upset in the 2019 German Open.

Early years

Feng was born on 31 August 1986 in Harbin, Heilongjiang, People's Republic of China. She is the only daughter of Feng Qingzhi, a granary worker, and his wife Li Chunping, an employee of a department store. Feng's parents, who were poor, lived frugally for years to pay for her table tennis training. Her father suffered from multiple sclerosis, but she was not told how severe his illness was. He died in 2002, weeks before Feng tried out for China's national B squad. Although Feng topped the qualifying matches a month later and was called up for the national team in 2003, she suffered from a long illness; a source close to her said it was "because she missed her father too much". Feng left China in 2005 to play in the Japanese professional league. While there she was spotted by Liu Guodong, then a coach with the Singapore Table Tennis Association, in 2006. In March 2007 she was invited to train in Singapore under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme. She became a Singapore citizen in January 2008.

Career

Feng made her international début for Singapore in June 2007 as an under-21 player at the International Table Tennis Federation Pro Tour Volkswagen Korean Open. As a singles player, Feng was ranked 73rd in the world in August 2007.
In 2007, she achieved a silver medal in the singles at the ITTF Pro Tour Chinese Taipei Open, her compatriot Li beating her to take the gold.
Feng was a member of the silver medal-winning team at the World Team Championships in Guangzhou in 2008 and defeated the top seed Zhang Yining from China in the Quarter-finals of the Asian Cup held in Sapporo between 29 and 30 March 2008, eventually achieving second place behind China's Guo Yue. She rose to the top 10 world rankings within a year.

2008 Summer Olympics

Feng represented Singapore for the first time at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the women's team tournament. She contributed to Singapore's 3–2 win against South Korea in the semifinals by defeating Dang Ye-Seo and Park Mi-Young in two singles matches. Feng's match against Park was closely fought, with Feng eventually overcoming Park 3–1. Singapore was assisted by the implementation of the expedite system when the game failed to be completed in ten minutes. The system unsettled Park, and Feng won two minutes after its introduction in the match when Park committed a service fault. Interviewed afterwards, Feng said: "I definitely did not expect that . It was a surprise and the best birthday present I've ever gotten."
On 17 August 2008, Feng and her teammates achieved a silver medal in women's table tennis after losing to China in three matches. Feng played the starting singles match, winning the first game but eventually losing to China's Wang Nan 1–3. This was the first time Singapore had won an Olympic medal since its independence in 1965. The medal came 48 years after Tan Howe Liang won the country's first medal, a silver in weightlifting in the lightweight category at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
Feng received byes into the third round of the women's singles tournament. Feng defeated South Korea's Dang Ye-Seo 4–0 in the third round, Netherlands' Li Jie 4–1 in the fourth round, but fell 1–4 to China's Zhang Yining in the quarter-finals. Feng made the world number one work for her win, with the final scores being 11–13, 14–12, 12–14, 10–12, 11–13. According to the Straits Times, Zhang leveraged on her experience by stalling for time at crucial stages of the game, which broke Feng's rhythm. Interviewed after the match, Feng said: "I'm sure I'll win a medal at the next Olympics."
At a victory celebration in Singapore on 25 August 2008, Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, announced that Feng, Li and Wang would be presented with the Pingat Jasa Gemilang.

Competitions between 2008 and 2012

On 9 September 2008, Feng beat her compatriot Wang to clinch the bronze medal at the ITTF Women's World Cup in Kuala Lumpur. Despite crashing out of the singles event earlier, Feng and her teammates Li and Wang won the top title at the ITTF Pro Tour ERKE German Open in Berlin on 22 November 2008. Feng won her first professional singles title at the Polish Open in Warsaw on 30 November 2008, in an all-Singapore final against Wang. Feng and Yu Mengyu also took silver in the doubles. On 2 December 2008, the ITTF announced that Feng was ranked sixth in the world. This made her the top Singapore female table tennis player and the highest-ranked player in the world not representing China. She was third in Today newspaper's list of athletes of the year for 2008.
On 23 August 2009, Feng achieved her second Pro Tour singles title at the KAL Cup Korean Open in Seoul.
Feng took part in the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane, Laos. She was a member of the Singapore women's team with Sun Beibei and Wang that defeated Thailand 3–0 to win Gold on 10 December 2009. On 14 December 2009, she and her partner Wang were defeated by compatriots Sun and Yu in an all-Singapore final in the women's doubles. The following day, in her maiden appearance at the Games, she achieved gold in the singles competition after defeating Wang 4–1.
The Singapore Table Tennis Association made Feng the inaugural winner of its Best Player of the Year award on 12 February 2010. As of 8 April 2010, she had worked her way up to a second-place ranking in the world. On 3 May 2010, the Singapore National Olympic Council named her Sportswoman of the Year for 2009. The national table tennis women's team, composed of Feng, Li, Wang and Sun were awarded the Team of the Year prize at the Singapore Sports Awards.
Together with Sun and Wang, Feng was a member of the team at the Liebherr World Team Table Tennis Championships in Moscow that defeated China, 17-time winner and the reigning world champion, with a score of 3–1. In the two games she played, Feng defeated Liu Shiwen and Ding Ning, ranked number one and four in the world respectively and Wang contributing another point to the team by defeating Liu Shiwen. This was the first time Singapore had lifted the Corbillon cup.

2012 Summer Olympics

Feng represented Singapore at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and was the nation's flagbearer at the Parade of Nations segment of the opening ceremony. She entered the women's singles competition seeded sixth, and progressed until she was defeated 2–4 by China's Ding Ning in the semi-finals. She won against Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan 4–0 to take the bronze medal, becoming the second Singaporean to win an individual Olympic medal. Interviewed after her win, Feng said: "I'm really happy, although I feel it's come a little too suddenly. My form wasn't very good lately, so I didn't dare to carry too much expectations coming into the London Olympics. It was just a relief to win."
Feng also participated in the women's team competition with Li and Wang. They were beaten 0–3 by Japan in the semifinals, but took the bronze medal by edging out South Korea 3–0. Feng defeated Kim Kyung Ah 11–9, 11–8, 4–11, 13–11, Li also successfully fended off Seok Ha Jung 11–5, 11–8, 6–11, 11–8. Li and Wang then succeeded in the doubles game against Seok and Dang Ye Seo 11–9, 11–6, 6–11, 11–5. This marked the first time Singapore had won more than one medal at an Olympic Games. Feng commented: "Against Japan, we gave ourselves too much pressure and lost the psychological battle. After that, I told myself that I must prepare myself well mentally and it's only when I do what I'm capable of that I can win."
;Singles Event

Date

Round

Result

Opponent

Score

Individual Sets

–

1st

Bye

–

2nd

Bye

29 July

3rd

Win