Defending Olympic champion Edgar Cheung advanced to the quarter-finals on Monday, after beating Mo Ziwei of China 15-10 in the last-16 of the men’s individual foil at the Grand Palais.

The SAR athlete, who is ranked third in the world, started out strong earning himself an early three points to put him ahead.

Mo was able to fight back, but Cheung maintained good defence to put him at an 8-6 lead.

Mo then bounced back into the action, but he couldn’t overtake the SAR star, who won in two rounds.

Cheung will play host France’s Enzo Lefort in the quarter-finals.

Coach Gregory Koenig said Cheung has to be prepared to face Lefort and a strong home crowd.

“He has really the perfect mindset. He is self-confident, he knows he can be strong and this is what I want from him. Now as you can see on the table, he will have to fence Enzo Lefort, which is really the ‘chouchou’ of the French public, so it’s going to be hard,” he said.

“It’s going to be like in Rio against the Brazilian guy. He has to face off. If you want to become an Olympic champion, you have to face these kind of matches where you have to fence against one guy plus five thousand people of the public, but he will be prepared for this.”