Yu Mengyu

Yu Mengyu (born 18 August 1989) is a retired Singaporean table tennis player.

Yu was born on 18 August 1989.

She started practising table tennis from the age of five and eventually become a provincial player in 1999.

She once secured the runner-up position in the Chinese national U17 competition.

During a competition in Beijing when she was 17, Yu was spotted by STTA coach Chen Yong, who invited her to join the Singapore set-up With the opportunity to compete in international competitions, Yu accepted the invitation and joined the STTA under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme.

Born in Liaoning, China, Yu left China in 2006 at the age of 17 to join the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme.

In the same year, Yu made her international debut for Singapore.

She became a Singapore citizen in 2006 and started representing the Singapore team in international competitions.

Yu participated in the U21 event of the 2006 ITTF Singapore Open and secured the gold medal in women's singles.

In March 2023, Yu left the table tennis scene for the time being to pursue a degree of Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU, world ranking 12th in the QS ranking in year 2022), after becoming the first Singapore athlete to receive a full scholarship from the Nanyang Centre for Public Administration (NCPA).

In January 2024, Yu graduated from NTU, receiving the degree of EMPA.

She was awarded the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Scholarship by the NCPA.

She also received the Best Thesis Award.

2008–09: ITTF World Tour Grand Finals

In December 2008, during the 2009 ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals held in Macau, Yu reached the U21 final but ultimately lost to Japanese chopper Yuka Ishigaki, eventually becoming the runner-up.

Yu was part of the team who defeated China 3-1 to be crowned world champions in the 2010 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Moscow, Russia.

In January 2010, during the 2009 ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals held in Macau, Yu secured the U21 championship by defeating Romanian player Dodean 4-0 (11-9, 11-8, 11-5, 11-4) in the final.

Together with Feng, Sun, and Wang, Yu was a member of the team at the Liebherr World Team Table Tennis Championships in Moscow.

The team defeated China, 17-time winner and the reigning world champion, with a score of 3–1, which was one of the greatest upsets in table tennis history.

This was the first time Singapore had lifted the Corbillon Cup.

In 2010, Yu was ranked as world No. 9. Her ranking contributed to raising the Singapore women's table tennis team up to the second place in the world and to the second seed in the Championship.

In February-March 2011, during the 20th Asian Table Tennis Championships held in Macau, the Singapore women's team, consisting of Yu, Feng, Wang, Li, and Sun, won the semifinal against the Japanese team that composed of Ai Fukuhara, Kasumi Ishikawa, and Sayaka Hirano, with a score of 3-2, thereby securing their place in the final.

In the decisive match of the semifinal, Yu defeated Kasumi Ishikawa 3-2, sealing the victory for Singapore and advancing them to the final.

However, in the final, Singapore's team lost to the top-seeded Chinese team with an overall score of 1-3, eventually reaching the runner-up position.

Notably, in the third game of the final, Yu earnt Singapore's sole point in the match by staging a comeback to win 3-2 (7-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-8) against Chinese player Liu Shiwen.

She defeated Kasumi Ishikawa and Liu Shiwen consecutively in the women's team event at the 2012 Asian Table Tennis Championships, thereby helping Singapore secure the runner-up position.

Yu and her partner Feng Tianwei represented Singapore to participate in the 2012 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour Grand Finals.

In the competition, the duo of Yu and Feng successively defeated the Japanese pair of Hiroko Fujii and Misako Wakamiya with a score of 4-2 (11-2, 10-12, 12-10, 8-11, 12-10, 11-9) and the Hong Kong Chinese pair of Cheung Hoi Kem and Lee Ho Ching with a score of 4-1 (11-9, 12-10, 11-8, 10-12, 11-8) to advance to the final.

In the final, facing the duo of Cheng I-ching and Huang Yi-hua from Chinese Taipei, although initially trailing by losing the first two sets, the Singapore pair staged a comeback by consecutively winning three sets and secured victory in the decisive seventh set with a score of 11-2.

Ultimately, they reversed the situation with a remarkable 4-3 win (11-13, 11-13, 11-8, 11-4, 11-3, 5-11, 11-2), thereby clinching the gold medal in the women's doubles event at the 2012 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals.

Yu represented Singapore in the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics.

She was the flag bearer for Singapore during the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Yu’s career has been consistently plagued by injuries.

This made it challenging for her to maintain a high participation rate and stable competitive performance in international competitions.

Yu participated in two Olympic Games, being the only female table tennis athlete that secured the fourth place twice and the fifth place twice, but has yet to clinch an Olympic medal.

In 2021, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore praised Yu at the National Day Rally, commending her spirit of “to be indomitable, to keep going and never give up” during the Tokyo Olympic Games.

He referred to her as a representative of the "Singapore Spirit".

On 22 March 2022, Yu retired from the national team.

In November, she was awarded the Sportswoman of the Year in the Singapore Sports Awards 2022.

In 2024, Yu was inducted into the Singapore Sport Hall of Fame.