LONDON (AP) Wang Hao has won two silver medals in table tennis in the last two Olympics, history he's trying to forget.
"I want that gold medal very much," Wang said. "The silver medals are in the past, so I'm just trying to take it step by step."
The main problem is Chinese teammate Zhang Jike, who also reached the semifinals of men's singles on Wednesday. The two are the choices to advance to Thursday's final and, as Wang knows, No. 1-seeded Zhang is viewed as the favorite.
"The top four are really close, so we'll see," Wang said.
Thursday's men's semifinals will feature Zhang and Wang, and two non-Chinese player: Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany and Chuang Chih-Yuan of Taiwan. But anything less than an all-China final will shock 1.3 billion Chinese who expect all four golds in their national pastime.
In Wednesday's quarterfinals, Zhang defeated his friend Jiang Tainyi of Hong Kong - they two both grew up in China's Shandong province - 4-1 in an easy match that looked more like training than an Olympic showdown.
Wang defeated Japan's Seiya Kishikawa 4-0 in another lopsided match.
Zhang seems to be under more pressure than Wang.
"Each of my matches is getting better," he said. "I have been too stressed, but today was better."
In two quarterfinals on Tuesday, Ovtcharov defeated Michael Maze of Denmark 4-3, and Chuang reached the semifinals, beating Adrian Crisan of Romania 4-0.
In Thursday semifinals, Zhang faces Ovtcharov and Wang plays Chuang with the winners playing the same day in the finals.
China is guaranteed to win Wednesday women's singles final with world champion Ding Ning playing teammate Li Xiaoxia. Ding has won 6 of 10 matches against Li - and 6 of the last 7 - and beat her last year in the final of the world championship.
It must be a bad omen that Li is known in China as "Ms. No. 2."
"I will not be concerned by the underdog name," she said, looking put off by the question.
China has won 20 of 24 gold medals since pingpong entered the Olympics in 1988 in Seoul, and the women's final is expected to draw a TV audience of 500 million.
The women have won every singles title since Seoul. The men have been less dominating with three golds in six Olympics. One came from men's coach Liu Guoliang, who won two gold medals in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
---
Follow Stephen Wade at https://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP
