Olympics | Chinese paddlers dominate semifinals, eye clean sweep at Paris 2024

PARIS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's men's and women's table tennis teams made the finals after sweeping past their French and South Korean opponents respectively, with decisive 3-0 victories in the team event semifinals at Paris 2024 on Thursday.

Having secured gold medals in mixed doubles and both men's and women's singles, China now stands on the brink of achieving a remarkable feat of winning all five table tennis golds in Paris, if they can manage to snatch men's team victory on Friday and women's team win on Saturday.

In the morning's men's team semifinal, China faced some challenges amid the overwhelming cheers of the home crowd.

The dynamic duo of Ma Long and Wang Chuqin battled fiercely in the first match, narrowly edging out Simon Gauzy and Alexis Lebrun 13-11 in the opening game before securing a 3-0 triumph.

"Every match today was not easy. It was our first time playing doubles against the French team, and they have very distinct characteristics, putting some pressure on us," Ma said after the game.

"When we were trailing 3-7 at the start, we didn't panic and stuck to our strategy, making some adjustments that worked well. Winning the first game greatly helped our mindset for the second and third games," he reflected.

In the second match, newly-crowned men's singles champion Fan Zhendong triumphed over Felix Lebrun 3-1, while his compatriot Wang, after losing the first game, rebounded to defeat Alexis Lebrun 3-1 in the second singles.

"It was quite normal for this to happen," Wang said about losing the first game. "Given the opponent's home crowd support and his unique playing style, his feel for the game was just superb. But as the match progressed, I slowly found my rhythm."

China's men team will face Sweden in the final, a team that has never won an Olympic medal in this event.

The afternoon saw China's women breeze past South Korea in their semifinal matchup. Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng and Wang Manyu overpowered Shin Yu-bin, Jeon Ji-hee and Lee Eun-hye 3-0 after one doubles and two singles. Sun was particularly dominant, conceding only nine points across three sets in her singles.

In the upcoming final, China's women will face the winner between Germany and Japan.

"I believe the power of the three of us coming together is limitless. I also believe that standing on the court, we will make any opponent's heart tremble a bit," Chen said of the final.