Fifteen-year-old Mima Ito showed the composure of a veteran to lead Japan's women to the table tennis team bronze medal at the Rio Olympics on Tuesday with a 3-1 win over Singapore.
Japan, which missed out on the chance to win gold when it lost to Germany in Sunday's semifinal, got off to a bad start when team captain Ai Fukuhara lost her opening singles match 3-2 to Yu Mengyu before ace Kasumi Ishikawa evened the score by sweeping world No. 4 Feng Tianwei.
Ito and Fukuhara then gave Japan the advantage with a hard-fought 3-1 doubles win over Yu and Zhou Yihan, before teen phenom Ito stayed on the table to rout Feng 3-0 and claim an emotional bronze medal for her and her teammates at Riocentral Pavilion 3.