With day four in the books of 2016 Rio Olympics table tennis, who made it to the semifinals on Wednesday?
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Tuesday’s action is in the books as the men’s and women’s singles quarterfinals took place with plenty of big names still left on the board looking for a trip to the Olympics semifinals.
A numbers of upsets have taken place in this year’s field and it’s been a tough go of things for the United States who saw their top two contenders for a medal, Yu Wue and Lily Zhang, knocked out even before the quarterfinals.
China’s top dogs are still going strong, but how did their fare in the last round before the semis and bronze and gold matches?
Men’s quarterfinals
The men’s side of things had some late matches on Tuesday night and some of the world’s top table tennis athletes were looking to stave off upset to make it to a medal-contending contest.
China’s Zhang Jike took down Japan’s Koki Niwa 4-to-1, Belarus’ Vladimir Samsonov took out 2012 London Olympics bronze medal recipient Dimitrij Ovtcharov as well. China’s Ma Long swept Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna 4-0 and Japan’s Jun Mizutani advanced after beating Portugal’s Marcos Freitas in six games.
Women’s quarterfinals
The women finished up their play earlier in the day and had plenty of time to rest before Wednesday’s big matches. Four players remain after winning on Tuesday and all but one is guaranteed a medal on Thursday, but each will be moving on no matter what to either the bronze or gold medal game.
China’s Ding Ning and Li Xiaoxia and Japan’s Ai Fukuhara all advanced to the semifinals thanks to clean 4-0 sweeps. North Korea’s Kim Song I advanced as well in six games.
Wednesday’s action will bring some of the most intense battles that we’ve seen in the table tennis field.