China's table tennis star Fan Zhendong scraped through to the men's singles semi-final after a pulsating contest against Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto.
Fan, who bagged silver in Tokyo, erased a two-game deficit before outlasting his opponent 4-3 in 68 minutes.
The result was a major relief for Chinese fans, after top seed Wang Chuqin suffered a shock exit in the round of 32 yesterday.
Fan's defeat would be a huge disappointment for China, as they have finished on the podium of the men's singles in every Games since 1992.
"I felt I didn't perform particularly well today, and allowed my opponent to dictate the rhythm," Fan told RTHK after the match.
"I tried to break through, and kept my confidence. Eventually I found a way while keeping the score close, and waited for the momentum to shift."
Fan will next take on 17-year-old French prodigy Felix Lebrun.
Earlier, Sun Yingsha reached the last four in the women's singles.
The top seed has not dropped a single game so far in Paris, going 16-0 following her latest victory over Chinese Taipei's Cheng I-ching in the last eight.
Sun, who already bagged a gold in the mixed doubles, will next face Hina Hayata of Japan.
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