Off the wire
• Xinhua Insight: China's Silicon Valley hopefuls  • Beijing to adopt new residential permit system in October  • Results of rowing men's pair final A at Rio Olympics  • New Zealand snatch men's pair gold in rowing regatta of Olympic Games  • Germany win women's quadruple sculls gold in rowing regatta of Olympic Games  • Pakistan does not rule out foreign hand in Quetta blast  • China confirms fishing boat crash near Diaoyu Islands  • Palestinian stabs Israeli with screwdriver in East Jerusalem  • Feature: Belgium's family potato business vital force in land of fries  • Germany lift men's quadruple sculls title in rowing regatta of Olympic Games  
You are here: 　 Home

World No. 1 paddler Ma Long reaches final in Rio 2016

Xinhua, August 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

Table tennis world No. 1 Ma Long overcame a late stumble to beat sixth-ranked Japanese Jun Mizutani 4-2 and made the men' s singles final here on Thursday at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Leading 3-0 on sets, the 27-year-old Ma trailed 4-8 in the fourth set with several extra high-level forehand hits from Mizutani.

Nailing three points in a row to narrow the gap to 7-8, Ma seemed confident to launch a comeback to seal the victory, but failed to resist his rival' s top spin attack and lost it 11-7.

Almost the same process repeated in the following set, which Ma was edged 12-10, but the world championships and World Cup title holder took back control of the game in the sixth and nipped it 11-5 to round up the semifinal clash.

Later on Thursday, Ma' s fellow Chinese Zhang Jike, the Grand Slam winner and defending champion here, will meet 40-year-old Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus. Endit