(BEIJING, August 22) -- Saturday's Men's Singles Semifinal will mirror Friday's Women's semifinal with three Chinese players competing. Winners of Friday's quarterfinals: three Chinese paddlers World No.1 Wang Hao, No. 2 Ma Lin and No.4 Wang Liqin together with Jorgen Persson of Sweden will fight for the Men's Singles gold medal.

　　Wang Hao smashed the dark horse Ko Lai-chak of Hong Kong 4-1 in the first match of Friday's quarterfinals. Top seed Wang remains irresistible and is right on course to take the Olympic gold medal he lost four years ago in Athens.

　　The match between the two sixth-time Olympians: Zoran Primorac of Croatia and Jorgen Persson of Sweden was spectacular with many long rallies and smashes. Both demonstrated excellent form in the match but Persson was "a little bit more aggressive" and eventually won 4-1. It was eight years ago since this 42-year-old Swedish man was last seen in the Olympic semifinal.

　　It took Wang Liqin of China only 22 minutes to beat Tan Ruiwu of Croatia 4-0 and qualify for the semifinal. But for his teammate Ma Lin, it was a much harder 4-0 win over Oh Sang-eun of the Republic of Korea. Ma's good serve and spinning balls cost Oh many mistakes. Luck seemed to favor the host country's player by giving him a net-cord ball in the last rally that finalized his victory.

　　Wang Hao will play Persson and Wang Liqin will face Ma Lin in the semifinal to be held Saturday at the Peking University Gymnasium.