Chinese table tennis Grand Slam winner Zhang Jike made his way through the championship round of the men's singles event following an impressive 4-1 victory against Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus on Thursday in the ongoing 2016 Rio Olympics.

According to Sina, Zhang, who currently ranks No. 4 in the latest ITTF world rankings, defeated the 40-year-old ninth-best paddler in the globe with a smashing 11-9, 13-11, 12-10, 6-11, 11-9 triumph. With his semifinals victory, the 28-year-old   has set up an all-Chinese table tennis finals showdown with the reigning world No. 1 Ma Long.

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A faster and heavier hitter than the former world No. 1 Belarusian player, the second-seeded Zhang won almost all forehand rallies except an edge ball from Samsonov in the third set.  

After granting the fourth set 11-6, Zhang, who was a two-time world champion, hesitated no more and led 5-1 in the decisive fifth before he forced his opponent to return it wide to win 11-9.

Zhang is the defending men's singles event champion. On the other hand, Ma, who did not compete in the men's singles event four years ago, will be gunning for his maiden individual Olympic title.

Ma, who was the 2015 World Table Tennis Championships titleholder, overcame a late stumble to get the better of the world No. 6 Jun Mizutani of Japan. The top-notch Chinese paddler outclassed the Japanese four games to two in their round of final four clash last Wednesday.

Ma managed to look both relaxed and overwhelmingly strong, smashing forehand after forehand at his opponent, frequently forcing 27-year-old Mizutani into errors, AP reports. Mizutani, who is a two-time ITTF World Tour Grand Finals winner, put up a gallant fight toward the end, taking the fourth and fifth games, but Ma proved too strong in the sixth game.

Tagszhang jike, Ma Long, jun mizutani, Vladimir Samsonov, ITTF, Rio Olympics 2016