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by Trudy Harris
BEIJING, Aug 21, 2008 (AFP) - China's three table tennis champions battled into the semi-finals of the women's singles Thursday, with only Singapore's Li Jia Wei left to halt the host nation's charge for gold.
China's world number one and defending champion Zhang Yining fought off a ferocious challenge from Singapore's number nine seed Feng Tian Wei in her quarter-final, before winning 13-11, 12-14, 14-12, 12-10 13-11.
China, where table tennis is considered the national sport, have never lost the women's singles title since the sport was introduced at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, such is the dominance of the team.
But Singapore's Beijing-born Li, fresh from leading her compatriots to silver in the team competition against China, the city state's first medal in 48 years, is gunning for an upset in the singles.
The fourth seed destroyed Wang Chen's dreams of clinching a medal for the United States, winning 15-13, 11-6, 12-10, 13-15, 11-4 in their quarter-final, and now takes on the Athens gold medallist.
Wang, 34, who announced she is retiring after these Games, earlier made history by becoming the first player for the United States to reach the last eight of the Olympic tournament.
"I've been preparing for this for two years. I'm 34 years old, I'm not a young player, my back hurts always and I always feel very tired," said Wang, a former national China player who moved to the United States eight years ago.
China's Wang Nan, the veteran of the Chinese team at 29 who has three gold medals from previous Olympics, also had a tough workout against Hong Kong's Tie Yana before prevailing 11-5, 11-4, 11-13, 11-2, 11-4.
World champion Guo Yue fought off Wu Xue from the Dominican Republic, the surprise of the tournament after she defeated paddlers higher than her 50 world ranking, winning 11-5, 16-14, 13-11, 11-5.
The two Chinese champions have a showdown in the other semi-final on Friday.
Zhang said she won her match against Feng, which included numerous fast and furious rallies, despite being barred from using her match racquet after it failed inspection from tournament officials.
"I could not attack because of the rubber on the backup racquet. It's not powerful enough," she said.
"She (Feng) has good defence and is good at rallies. Compared to the last time, I feel that she has improved in her ability to sustain a rally. She is still young and has a great future," she said.
Zhang earlier shattered Japan's hopes of securing a medal on the women's side, defeating teenage prodigy Ai Fukuhara 4-1 in the round of 16.
Zhang took the win in her stride, suggesting she lost the fourth game against Japan's darling of the sport because she was impatient to get back to the Olympic village.
"Overall the match was within my control. I felt quite assured of a win. Compared to my opponent I have greater capabilities. So I was certain of winning the match," she said.
"I might have relaxed too much in the fourth game and lost my concentration. I just wanted to hurry up and go home to rest."
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