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.