Samsonov left sole European in Olympic TT semis, African giant-killer bows out

Belarus veteran Vladimir Samsonov came out the sole non-Asian paddler left in both men's and women's singles last four after Tuesday's table tennis competitions at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The 40-year-old outlasted Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany 4-2 to advance to the semifinals for the first time in his sixth Olympic Games.

Having called a medical timeout during the second set after losing the first, Samsonov launched an incredible comeback to win 8-11, 11-7, 19-17, 4-11, 11-2, 14-12.

With the victory, the Belarusian set up a semifinal encounter on Thursday morning with London 2012 gold medalist Zhang Jike, who beat Japanese sensation Koki Niwa 4-1 on Tuesday.

Easily beaten 11-5 in the first set, the 28-year-old Zhang fought back in style from the second set, rounding up the quarterfinal in 34 minutes, 5-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7, 11-4.

Trailing 7-5 in the fourth set, Zhang's national team head coach Liu Guoliang, a table tennis Grand Slam winner himself, called a timeout and Zhang came back to win six points in a row and never looked back.

The world No. 4 was no stranger to Samsonov, as the eventual champion in London 2012 trailed the Belarusian 3-1 in sets before pulling down three sets in a row to oust him in the quarterfinals four years ago.

"I don't want to put excessive pressure on myself with the memories of London 2012. Each match is fresh new," added Zhang, the 2011 and 2013 world champion, after making semis in Rio and getting to know his next opponent.

The other men's singles semifinal will pit reigning world champion Ma Long and No. 4 seed Jun Mizutani of Japan.

Ma, the top seed here, stopped the impressive run of dark horse Quadric Aruna, 11-4, 11-2, 11-6, 11-7 after the 28-year-old Nigerian eliminated fifth seed Chuang Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei and German star Timo Boll to become the first ever African to reach the Olympic quarterfinals.

Mizutani, on the other hand, met fierce resistant from Portuguese Marcos Freitas but managed to hold on to win 11-4, 9-11, 11-3, 11-8, 10-12, 11-2.

Earlier in women's action, both China's Ding Ning and Li Xiaoxia eased into the semifinals while Japanese star Ai Fukuhara and DPR Korean chopper Kim Song-I also did so, but in stunning style.

Twice world champion and 2012 Olympics runner-up Ding Ning made short work of German defensive paddler Han Ying 4-0 to book a place in the women's last four, setting up a second encounter against a chopper after Kim rallied past Singapore's Yu Mengyu 4-2.

Just like Aruna in the men's field, the 21-year-old Kim came out the women's singles biggest discovery in Rio as she upset top Japanese paddler Kasumi Ishikawa 4-3 in the third round.

Fukuhara also reached semis with an upset win over Singapore's No. 2 seed Feng Tianwei in straight sets.

"This must be the best game from Ai out of so many matches she played against me in the past decade," commented Feng, a former Chinese team player.

"She just played fantastically and some of her reactions on court went beyond my imagination," said Feng.

Fukuhara's semifinal encounter with Grand Slam winner Li Xiaoxia will be the Japanese player's first in her Olympic experience. Her previous best result was a quarterfinal finish in London 2012.

The women's singles semifinals will be played on Wednesday morning, and the final in the evening. Endit