Tan stars as S'pore women win Asian team bronze

Not only is Tan Zhao Yun a member of the national intermediate table tennis squad, she also runs YouTube channel TRYTT as a hobby - the 2,100-subscriber channel has 85 videos and it is managed by Tan and her twin brother Zhao Ray.

- David Lee

But when she returns from the Asian Table Tennis Team Championships in Bhubaneswar, the 20-year-old will have plenty of highlight reels of herself to post, after she played a starring role in world No. 23 Singapore's return to the podium with a joint-bronze alongside South Korea.

On Oct 13, the unheralded world No. 166 claimed two crucial points in Singapore's 3-2 win over 11th-ranked hosts India in the women's team quarterfinals at the Kalinga-Athletics HPC Building.

After sweeping Kazakhstan and the Maldives, ranked 40th and 68th respectively, 3-0 in the group stage, and then Malaysia in the playoff to reach the last eight, Singapore then faced India in front of a partisan home crowd.

Up stepped Tan, who had played just one earlier match against Kazakhstan, to become the unexpected star of Singapore's campaign as the chopper stunned world No. 44 Manika Batra 3-1, followed by 86th-ranked Diya Chitale 3-0 to finish the event unbeaten.

She was not fielded in the 3-0 defeat by Japan in the semifinals on Oct 14 Singapore eventually clinched a joint-bronze as there was no third-place playoff.