(BEIJING, August 22) -- China starts as the clear favorites to add to their gold medal tally as the final places in the Men's Singles competition in the Table Tennis events are decided.

　　The only man standing in the way of China's clean sweep of all three medals is the 42-year-old Jorgen Persson of Sweden. He has rolled back the years to reach the final day of action in the Peking University Gymnasium.

　　Persson had a chance of winning an Olympic medal eight years ago in Sydney. But he lost in the bronze medal match to Liu Guoliang of China who is now the head coach of the Chinese Men's Table Tennis team.

　　Yet again, Liu Guoliang will be trying to cause the Swede's downfall. He will be sitting courtside as the coach to Wang Hao, World No.1, who Persson will face in the semifinals.

　　In the lower half of the draw it is an all China contest with Ma Lin, seeded No.2, facing Wang Liqin, seeded No.3. The meeting of these two is a callback of the Men's Singles final at the 2007 World Championships where Wang Liqin recovered from a 3-0 deficit to claim victory over Ma Lin. Wang has won more of their previous world ranking tournaments over Ma.

　　The two losing semifinalists will compete for the bronze medal, for the winners it is gold or silver.